Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, called on President Trump Friday to apologize to the nation for his failed response to the violence in Charlottesville.
Mr. Romney said on Facebook that Mr. Trump should follow the example set by the nation’s military leaders who denounced the actions of the white nationalists, neo-Nazis and KKK members who gathered in Virginia and clashed with counterprotesters.
“The president must take remedial action in the extreme,” Mr. Romney said. “He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize.”
Mr. Romney called on him to “state forcefully and unequivocally that racists are 100 percent to blame for the murder and violence in Charlottesville” and to “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 counterprotestors who were outraged to see fools parading the Nazi flag, Nazi armband and Nazi salute.”
The former Massachusetts governor also said he must “once and for all … repudiate the support of David Duke and his ilk and call for every American to banish racists and haters from any and every association.”
Mr. Romney warned fellow Republicans during the 2016 GOP primary race against nominating Mr. Trump, calling the New Yorker a “fraud.”
But after Mr. Trump wrapped up the nomination, Mr. Romney met with Mr. Trump to discuss a position in his Cabinet.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, endorsed Mr. Romney during the 2012 presidential campaign.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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