Fresh from an astonishingly incendiary speech on Mount Rushmore on Friday night, President Trump picked up where he left off on Saturday and targeted the media, bizarrely claiming that journalists who call racism somehow “slander” everything. the country and all US military veterans. .
“For those in the media, who falsely and consistently label their opponents as racists, who condemn patriotic citizens … When you level these false charges, you not only slander me, not only slander the American people, but slander generations of heroes who gave their lives for the United States, “he told the crowd gathered for the White House Salute to America celebration.
Trump used most of his speech to dismiss widespread protests against racism across the country as a left-wing plot aimed at destroying the country, echoing his comments the night before, when he rallied supporters against those taking part in the protests. , whom he described as “evil”. Protesters have taken down statues of Confederate leaders, Christopher Columbus and other figures known to stoke racial oppression, acts that Trump vehemently opposes.
While he did not mention names on Saturday, Trump repeatedly claimed that protesters sought to erase the legacy of the “great heroes.”
“We will not shoot our heroes. We will honor them and demonstrate that they are worthy of their sacrifice, ”he said.
But he seemed to save most of his anger for journalists reporting on current estimates of the country’s history of racism.
Leveling the “false” accusation of racism, he said: “You slander people who are much braver and more principled than you. You are slandering the young man who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. And those who perished fighting for freedom in the Civil War. Slander. ”
He did not elaborate on which accusation in particular was false, against whom it was made, or if he was ruling out the existence of racism in general.
“We will not let the legacy of these heroes be clouded by you. … The patriots who built our country were not villains, “he said.
He also gave details of his recently announced monument garden, listing figures whose statues would be erected there. He said that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both slave owners, had been “unfairly mistreated” in the recent reformulation of their legacies.
Elsewhere in his speech, Trump said the United States had done well to fight the coronavirus and was “close to extinguishing it” even though cases rose at record rates across the country. He did not mention the nearly 130,000 victims who succumbed to the virus.
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