USA Today Editorial: It’s ‘Time To Censure President Trump’
Major newspaper calls for Trump to be censured over Charlottesville response.
One of the nation’s most prominent newspapers is calling for Donald Trump to be censured in the wake of Charlottesville.
The editorial urges Republicans to put their votes where their tweets are.
USA Today said that while several Republicans have come out on Twitter to condemn Trump’s statements – Twitter is not enough. “That’s all well and good. But the curse of Twitter is its driveby nature, allowing leaders to dip their toes in controversy without really getting wet,” the USA Today editorial noted.
The editorial went on to note Trump’s decision to say “that there were some ‘very fine people’ among the bigots waving Confederate battle flags and swastika banners; when torch-bearing marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us”; and when police said one Nazi sympathizer rammed a sports car into a crowd, killing an innocent counterprotester.”
The victim, as USA Today points out was 32 year old Heather Heyer who was killed when a white supremacist drove his care into a crowd of people where were marching against white supremacist.
“When these things happen in the United States, and the president blames “both sides,” more formal condemnation is necessary. This is a moment of reckoning for members of the Party of Lincoln: Do they want to stand up for American values, or do they want to keep enabling a president whose understanding of right and wrong has slipped dangerously off the rails?” the editorial notes.
Republicans should join Democrats to censure Donald Trump over his response to Charlottesville, the USA Today editorial says.
“Censure is not impeachment. Whether that’s appropriate will likely depend on the outcome of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. But censure would constitute a forceful way of rebuking the White House and condemning the vile views of a bigoted fringe, even as those people’s right to free speech and peaceful protest is protected under the First Amendment.”
Read the full editorial by USA Today here.
