WASHINGTON D.C., Aug. 18, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday called on President Donald Trump to apologize for his comments about Charlottesville, Va.
“The potential consequences are severe in the extreme,” Romney wrote in the Facebook post, which has been shared 18,000 times and garnered 27,000 comments as of noon Friday.
“Accordingly, the president must take remedial action in the extreme. He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize,” the post goes on.
Romney’s post, in full, reads:
“I will dispense for now from discussion of the moral character of the president’s Charlottesville statements. Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn. His apologists strain to explain that he didn’t mean what we heard. But what we heard is now the reality, and unless it is addressed by the president as such, with unprecedented candor and strength, there may commence an unraveling of our national fabric.
“The leaders of our branches of military service have spoken immediately and forcefully, repudiating the implications of the president’s words. Why? In part because the morale and commitment of our forces–made up and sustained by men and women of all races — could be in the balance. Our allies around the world are stunned and our enemies celebrate; America’s ability to help secure a peaceful and prosperous world is diminished. And who would want to come to the aid of a country they perceive as racist if ever the need were to arise, as it did after 9/11?
“In homes across the nation, children are asking their parents what this means. Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims are as much a part of America as whites and Protestants. But today they wonder. Where might this lead? To bitterness and tears, or perhaps to anger and violence?
“The potential consequences are severe in the extreme. Accordingly, the president must take remedial action in the extreme. He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize. State forcefully and unequivocally that racists are 100% to blame for the murder and violence in Charlottesville. Testify that there is no conceivable comparison or moral equivalency between the Nazis–who brutally murdered millions of Jews and who hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives to defeat–and the counter-protesters who were outraged to see fools parading the Nazi flag, Nazi armband and Nazi salute. And once and for all, he must definitively repudiate the support of David Duke and his ilk and call for every American to banish racists and haters from any and every association.
“This is a defining moment for President Trump. But much more than that, it is a moment that will define America in the hearts of our children. They are watching, our soldiers are watching, the world is watching. Mr. President, act now for the good of the country.”
Romney, who has a home in Holladay and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been one of Trump’s harshest critics, slamming him as a “con man,” a “phony” and “a fraud” in an eviscerating speech last March before Trump clinched the Republican nomination.
Trump fired back that Romney was a “choke artist” and “failed candidate” in the 2012 election.
After winning the election last year, Trump considered appointing Romney as his Secretary of State, with multiple reports stating in December that he was the strongest remaining candidate. Trump eventually appointed Rex W. Tillerson to that position.
This isn’t the first time Romney, who served as Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, spoke out about Charlottesville. Romney tweeted Tuesday, “No, not the same. One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes.”
