August 15, 2017

Trump Refuses to Blame White Nationalists for Charlottesville Violence. Now They’re Celebrating.

“Thank you…for your honesty & courage,” says David Duke.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

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At a press conference at Trump Tower this afternoon, President Donald Trump backtracked on his Monday speech condemning white supremacists for the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend. This time, he again blamed the “many sides” of the conflict—including the “alt-left”—and criticized the movement to remove Confederate statues.

While Trump’s critics are calling him out for reversing his position, white nationalists are quite pleased. Their Twitter reactions to the press conference have bordered on elation, with one tweet likening the president to a god. Here’s a sampling:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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