Keith Ellison says facts show Donald Trump has sympathy for white supremacists

Rep. Keith Ellison said Monday that the facts show President Trump has sympathy for white supremacists.

“If you look at facts, the evidence, that has been entered into the public record already, there’s a few things that are inescapable. One thing is that he did not immediate denounce the neo-Nazis and the Klan. And by the way, the flags that they were marching under are flags where the enemies of this country were killing Americans in the Civil War and World War II,” Mr. Ellison, Minnesota Democrat and deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on CNN.

Mr. Ellison said he believes that the president’s judgment is “off,” and that Rep. Jerry Nadler’s motion to censure Mr. Trump — a rarely used congressional tactic with minimal consequences — is a good step for Democrats.

“I know [Mr. Trump’s] judgment is absolutely off. Jerry Nadler and a few others have introduced a censure motion. I think that has a lot of merit,” Mr. Ellison explained. “We are … a part of this massive surge forward, counter to Trump’s moral ambivalence.”

But Mr. Ellison did note that he does not believe Mr. Trump himself is a white supremacist.

“I’m not saying he is one. I’m saying the positions they have articulated are positions that he does not feel an urgent need to denounced and distance himself from. And I think the piece of evidence right there is something all of us need to ask ourselves why?” the congressman said.