Pressure Grows on Trump to Fully Reject the Hate Groups That Love Him

“Mr. Trump needs to take responsibility…and repair the damage that he has caused.”

Protesters outside a conference held by white nationalists in Washington, DC, following Trump's win.<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/susanmelkisethian/30297293304/in/photolist-h9byHp-PpMztK-Nagzoq-PpMzsH-NagzcU-PpMzpg-NRkamW-Nagz2o-h9sc1T-h9qYd1-h9bHfU-h9c7R2-h9cfu7-h9sPGP-h9qYMY-h9pWXY-h9pVXJ-h9ry7A-h9pXH5-h9cTbx-h9dskP-h9rvTr-h9cSjn-h9rwft-h9qYEU-h9cSWK-NagySW-NRkafU-PmAg13-NRka8j-Nagyi9-NRk9WY-Nagya3-NRk9Po-NagxYw-NRk9DU-NagxKW-NRk9xb-NRk9pA-PmAew1-8DEtam-8DEwQW-8DBoH4-8DBnVt-8DBmXP-8DBjx8-8DEqP1-8DBhyp-8DEozq-8DEkW5">Susan Melkisethian</a>/Flickr

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


A coalition of human rights groups urged president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to make a clear break from the hateful and racist rhetoric that marked his presidential campaign by forcefully denouncing white nationalists and taking steps to mend the nation’s fraying race relations.

“Instead of pretending to be surprised by the pervasive hate that has infected our country, Mr. Trump needs to take responsibility for it and repair the damage that he has caused,” said Richard Cohen, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist groups and hate crimes. “He needs to speak out forcefully and repeatedly against bigotry. He needs to apologize to the communities he has injured and demonstrate that they will be protected and valued in his administration.”

Last week, when pressed by New York Times reporters, Trump finally disavowed support specifically from white nationalists and other extremists comprising the so-called “alt-right” movement. But his comments came after more than a year of courting them on social media and beyond. And Trump has in no way conceded that his demagogic campaign energized and emboldened hate groups, nor has he distanced himself from the alt-right with anything approaching the vituperative force that he has directed at protesters and the media.

Hundreds of attacks documented since Trump’s election include a gay man reportedly being beaten by an assailant who told him “the president says we can kill all you faggots now.”

According to a report released Tuesday by the SPLC, the 10 days following Trump’s election resulted in “867 bias-related incidents.” They include multiple accounts of black children being asked to ride in the back of school buses, the words “Trump Nation” and “Whites Only” being painted on a church with a large immigrant population, and a gay man being pulled from his car and beaten by an assailant who told him “the president says we can kill all you faggots now.”

A second report, from the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance Project, detailed the results of a post-election survey of 10,000 educators: 90 percent reported that their schools’ had been negatively affected since the election, and 80 percent described heightened concern among minority students about the impact of the election on their families.

Other groups that participated in the event at the National Press Club on Tuesday included the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Council of La Raza, Muslim Advocates, and the American Federation of Teachers. The SPLC’s Cohen called on Trump to reach out specifically to communities that he targeted rhetorically during his campaign, including Muslim Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans. He also called for the resignation of Trump’s incoming chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, who formerly helmed Breitbart News and remains a highly controversial and polarizing figure. “If he doesn’t do those things,” Cohen said, “the hate Mr. Trump has unleashed during this election season will continue to flourish.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate