Members of Trumpland are scrambling to figure out how to justify their continued association with the president, a day after Trump gave a defense of the Klansmen and white supremacists in Charlottesville who murdered Heather Heyer and severely beat Deandre Harris. Brian Beutler has argued that all of Trump’s cabinet members should resign, but we haven’t seen that happen yet. When asked about the ongoing feud between her husband Mitch McConnell and Trump, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said, “I stand by my man. Both of them.”
As for congressional Republicans like Paul Ryan and John McCain, they have settled on tweeting disapproval of Trump’s words, as they wait out the situation so they can go back to passing bad laws:
We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 15, 2017
There's no moral equivalency between racists & Americans standing up to defy hate& bigotry. The President of the United States should say so
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) August 16, 2017
The generals are tweeting about how the generals are not racist:
The Army doesn't tolerate racism, extremism, or hatred in our ranks. It's against our Values and everything we've stood for since 1775.
— GEN Mark A. Milley (@ArmyChiefStaff) August 16, 2017
But Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, seems to have taken the cake:
As the son of a holocaust survivor, I have no tolerance for #racism. Just because I support @POTUS @realDonaldTrump doesn't make me a racist pic.twitter.com/lfIwdosreE
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) August 16, 2017
Cohen is deploying the “I have black friends” defense—eight whole pictures of them!!—the racist anti-racist trope that we have come to know and love.
Is today over yet? pic.twitter.com/ku6fNsAtK4
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) August 16, 2017
He probably handed his intern a Dropbox folder of photos he has been saving for this very moment. Of course, by supporting Trump (a racist) and his agenda (a racist agenda) Cohen is racist. But we already knew that.