CHARLOTTESVILLE VIOLENCE
Trump slams critics, media
Refuses to back down, says his comments were 'misrepresented'
♦ UN chief: Racism, xenophobia must be opposed
♦ Top US general condemns racism
US President Donald Trump hit back yesterday at critics of his response to racial violence in the Virginia city of Charlottesville, and defiantly reiterated his opposition to the removal of monuments to the pro-slavery Civil war Confederacy.
Trump has been engulfed in controversy, strongly rebuked by members of his own Republican Party and snubbed by a string of American business leaders, over his reaction to the unrest in Charlottesville on Saturday.
In a series of Twitter posts yesterday, Trump showed no sign of backing down.
He criticized efforts in a growing number of US states, including Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, to remove statues honoring Confederate leaders.
Confederate symbols and monuments are viewed by many Americans as symbols of hate.
"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You can't change history, but you can learn from it," Trump wrote.
Trump also took a swing at his favorite punching bag, claiming his comments about the deadly violence in Charlottesville were misrepresented by media.
"The public is learning (even more so) how dishonest the Fake News is. They totally misrepresent what I say about hate, bigotry etc. Shame!," the US president wrote on Twitter.
One protester was killed in violent clashes between neo-Nazi and so-called "Alt-Right" demonstrators and counter-protesters in the Virginia college town of Charlottesville Saturday.
Both Democrat and Republican politicians criticized Trump's initial response -- when he condemned violence "on all sides" -- as inadequate.
On Monday he singled out the Klu Klux and neo-Nazis as "repugnant," but on Tuesday he returned to his original position and said there had been "blame on both sides."
Trump's weak condemnation of the racist far-right set off a political firestorm across the US political spectrum. World leaders also criticized Trump's response.
Trump lashed out yesterday at Republican US Senators Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake, two leading critics, as well as the media, and said he not had drawn any moral comparisons between white supremacists and those who opposed them.
Graham said on Wednesday that Trump's words suggested "moral equivalency" between the two sides and called on the president to use his words to heal Americans.
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said racism and xenophobia must be countered in the United States as everywhere in the world.
"Racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia are... poisoning our societies and it is absolutely essential for us all to stand up against them everywhere and every time," he said.
The United States' top general also condemned "racism and bigotry" yesterday, joining other military leaders in their denunciation of deadly violence in Charlottesville.
"I can absolutely and unambiguously tell you that there's no place for racism and bigotry in the US military or in the United States as a whole," General Joe Dunford, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told reporters during a visit to Beijing.