‘He Is Not a President’: Seth Meyers Scorches Trump’s Response to Charlottesville

Reminds America What a President Is

Monday night the late night hosts had no shortage of condemnation for President Donald Trump’s stunningly poor responses to white supremacist violence and murder in Charlottesville, Virginia. But NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” offered what many are citing as the most important.

After calling Saturday’s murder of Heather Heyer a terror attack by a white supremacist, Meyers scorched Trump for not mention’s Heyer’s name, the word terrorist, or even the white supremacist’s name in his comments. Not ever.

Meyers ran the now infamous clip of Trump on Saturday denouncing violence “on many sides.” 

“On many sides,” Meyers repeated. “If that choice of words made you feel sick to your stomach the good news is you’re a normal and decent person. The jury is still out on the president, as he initially refused to condemn the white supremacist movement in this country. Now, he did read a statement at the White House today that finally struck the right tone, but I’m sorry, pencils-down on this subject was Saturday evening. He only gets very partial credit.”

Meyers then walked through a few lowlights of Trump the politician, noting that some people “ignored it or played it down when Donald Trump claimed our first black president wasn’t born in this country. It was racist and insane, but he was written off as a clown—a bitter little man who didn’t know an American could have a name like ’Barack Obama.’ And then he called Mexicans ‘rapists’ during the speech announcing his candidacy, he called Elizabeth Warren ‘Pocahontas,'” Meyers lamented.

“Then he brought Steve Bannon into the White House with him, worked to take away voting rights from black people, and hammered away at the idea that Chicago was a wasteland because of the violent black people living there. And now white supremacists and American Nazis are visible, and energetic, and demonstrative in a way that we have not seen in our lifetimes.”

Meyers then signaled he was about to really go for it, after holding his hands still, began to gesture with great intent.

“Donald Trump did not immediately denounce the white supremacist movement when given the chance, and now – whether he knows it or not – many of those people see him as leading that movement,” Meyers charged.

“The leader of our country is called a ‘president’ because he’s supposed to preside over our society. His job is to lead, to cajole, to scold, to correct our path, to lift up what is good about us and to absolutely and unequivocally and immediately condemn what is evil in us.”

“And if he does not do that—if he does not preside over our society—then he is not a president. You can stand for a nation, or you can stand for a hateful movement. You can’t do both. And if you don’t make the right choice, I am confident that the American voter will.”

Scathing.

And entirely appropriate.

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Hat tip: Vanity Fair