United States President Donald Trump has come under fire from the lone black Republican in the United States Senate after retweeting a video showing one of his supporters in Florida yelling “white power” at people protesting his administration.
The video, retweeted by the president on Sunday, shows protesters and Trump supporters shouting blasphemies at an expanding retirement community. After a protester called a Trump supporter racist, the man, who was driving a golf cart, responds by raising his fist and shouting “white power.”
The phrase is a common rallying cry among white supremacists.
“There is no question that he should not have been retweeted and should simply be removed,” US Senator Tim Scott told CNN’s State of the Union program.
“He was so blasphemed that everything was offensive. Certainly, the comment about white power was offensive,” added the South Carolina Republican. “It is indefensible. We should remove it.”
The tweet comes immediately after Trump’s hostile response to protests against racial injustice that have spread across the United States following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis in late May.
In the tweet, which has since been removed, Trump wrote: “Thank you to the great folks at The Villages,” referring to the retirement community, which he visited last year.
‘Tremendous support’
In a brief statement, White House spokesman Judd Deere said: “President Trump is a great admirer of The Villages. He did not hear the only statement made in the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters. “
Trump has been accused of racism by lawmakers in relation to his tweets in the past, including for attacks on black lawmakers and for telling four Democratic congressmen of color that they should “return and help fix the completely broken and crime-infested places since which They came “.
In 2017, Trump was roundly criticized after a deadly Unite the Right rally attended by far-right groups, white supremacists, and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, when he said there were “very good people on both sides.”
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
