{"id":35422,"date":"2017-08-17T13:23:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T20:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=35422"},"modified":"2017-08-17T13:25:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T20:25:40","slug":"profiles-in-cowardice-republicans-are-refusing-all-interview-requests-to-defend-trumps-bigotry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=35422","title":{"rendered":"Profiles in Cowardice: Republicans Are Refusing All Interview Requests to Defend Trump’s Bigotry"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday morning Donald Trump tripled down on his support for the Confederacy and the bigotry it fought to preserve. His latest tweetstorm<\/a><\/strong> gushed over the “beauty”<\/em> of the statues of traitors that he says “will be greatly missed.”<\/em> And he’s right. They will be missed by the white supremacists and racists who have been applauding Trump’s advocacy of their cause.<\/p>\n

\"Shepard
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However, outside of the alt-rightists and Klan members that have rallied around his pro-Nazi remarks, Trump has garnered scant support from his own Republican colleagues. Many have taken to putting out their own condemnations of the violence instigated by bigots in Charlottesville. They include GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Unfortunately, in most cases they merely express opposition to racism without holding their president accountable for exacerbating the hate.<\/p>\n

These weakly conveyed messages of tolerance demonstrate the fear that Republicans have of directly countering Trump. They remain committed to his presidency and his agenda. They just can’t bring themselves to utter his name in conjunction with the division he is fomenting.<\/p>\n

They also can’t bring themselves to defend him on television. Every cable news network is complaining that their efforts to book Republicans to defend the President are coming up empty. This is an astonishing turn of events. Publicity-hungry politicians are actually declining to appear on TV to promote their party and president. Here are some examples of the media response to this unprecedented situation:<\/p>\n

Chuck Todd, MSNBC:<\/strong> We invited every single Republican senator on this program tonight, all 52. We asked roughly a dozen house Republicans including a bunch of committee chairs and we asked a half-dozen officials. And none of them agreed to discuss this issue with us today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wolf Blitzer, CNN:<\/strong> We did reach out to Republican leaders throughout the day. They all, at least for now, refused to join us. But the invitation is clearly still very much open.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shepard Smith, Fox News:<\/strong> Our booking team reached out to Republicans of all stripes across the country today. Let\u2019s be honest. Republicans don\u2019t mind coming on Fox News channel. We couldn\u2019t get anyone to come and defend him here. We thought in balance, someone should do that. We worked very hard at it throughout the day. We were unsuccessful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.@ShepNewsTeam<\/a>: "We couldn't get anyone to come and defend him here." pic.twitter.com\/iwHOnSWwzw<\/a><\/p>\n

— Sarah Hashemi (@SarahJHashemi) August 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n