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U.S. NEWS Friday 18 august 2017
Under fire _ from GOP _ Trump digs in on Confederate icons

By JONATHAN LEMIRE and sped down a busy
DARLENE SUPERVILLE pedestrian zone in what
Associated Press authorities called a terror
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) attack.
— With prominent Repub- He then added to his ex-
licans openly question- pression of support a tweet
ing his competence and reviving a debunked leg-
moral leadership, President end about a U.S. general
Donald Trump on Thursday subduing Muslim rebels a
burrowed deeper into the century ago in the Philip-
racially charged debate pines by shooting them
over Confederate memori- with bullets dipped in pig
als and lashed out at mem- blood.
bers of his own party in the “Study what General Persh-
latest controversy to engulf ing of the United States did
his presidency. to terrorists when caught.
Out of sight, but still on- There was no more Radical
line, Trump tweeted his Islamic Terror for 35 years!”
defense of monuments to Trump wrote.
Confederate icons — be- Trump’s unpredictable, de-
moaning rising efforts to fiant and, critics claim, ra-
remove them as an attack cially provocative behavior
on America’s “history and has clearly begun to wear
culture.” on his Republican allies.
And he berated his crit- Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, White House chief of staff John Kelly, left, watches as President Donald Trump speaks to the media
ics who, with increasingly whom Trump considered in the lobby of Trump Tower, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 in New York. Bombarded by the sharpest
sharper language, have for a Cabinet post, de- attacks yet from fellow Republicans, President Donald Trump on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017, dug
denounced his initially slow clared Thursday that “the into his defense of racist groups by attacking members of own party and renouncing the rising
and then ultimately com- president has not yet been movement to pull down monuments to Confederate icons.
bative comments on the able to demonstrate the (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
racial violence at a white stability nor some of the Period.” premacists to the future of ies, towns and parks will be
supremacist rally last week- competence that he needs Sen. Tim Scott of South Car- statues. greatly missed and never
end in Charlottesville, Vir- to” in dealing with crises. olina said Trump’s “moral “You can’t change history, able to be comparably re-
ginia. And Sen. Dan Sullivan of authority is compromised.” but you can learn from it,” placed!”
Trump was much quicker Alaska tweeted, “Anything Trump, who is known to he tweeted. “Robert E. Lee. “Sad to see the history and
Thursday to condemn vio- less than complete & un- try to change the focus of Stonewall Jackson — who’s culture of our great country
lence in Barcelona, where ambiguous condemnation news coverage with an next, Washington, Jeffer- being ripped apart with the
more than a dozen people of white supremacists, neo- attention-grabbing dec- son? So foolish. ... removal of our beautiful
were killed when a van Nazis and the KKK by the laration, sought to shift “Also the beauty that is statues and monuments,”
veered onto a sidewalk @POTUS is unacceptable. Thursday from the white su- being taken out of our cit- he tweeted.q

GOP senator says Trump hasn’t shown stability, competence

By RICHARD LARDNER to violence in Charlot-
Associated Press tesville, Virginia, “compli-
WASHINGTON (AP) — A cates this administration’s
prominent Republican sen- moral authority.” Corker’s
ator delivered a stinging remarks, which were post-
rebuke Thursday of Donald ed on Facebook, came
Trump’s short time in office, two days after Trump de-
declaring he has not shown clared at a New York press
the stability or competence conference that white su-
required for an American premacists don’t bear all
president to succeed. the blame for the melee
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennes- in Charlottesville, where a
see, chairman of the For- woman was killed after be-
eign Relations Committee, ing struck by a car driven
also said Trump “recently into a crowd. Trump trig-
has not demonstrated that gered a firestorm of pro-
he understands the char- test, with a number of Re-
acter of this nation.” During publicans criticizing him for
comments to local report- giving weight to the com-
ers after a speech to the plaints of white nationalists
Chattanooga Rotary Club, by refusing to definitively
Corker called for “radical condemn them. In this July 27, 2017 photo, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
changes” in how the Trump Corker has sought to be a is surrounded by reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Corker said Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017,
White House operates. strong supporter of Trump’s, Donald Trump has not yet shown the stability or competence required for an American president
Separately, Republican particularly on foreign pol- to succeed.
Sen. Tim Scott told a news- icy matters. He was con- (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
paper in his home state of sidered as a candidate fore Rex Tillerson, the for- for the job. But Trump’s im- the relationship for Corker
South Carolina that Trump’s for secretary of state in the mer chief executive officer pulsive and often bombas- and other congressional
heavily criticized response Trump administration be- of Exxon-Mobil, was picked tic style has complicated Republicans.q