Trump Says: I ‘Reject Bigotry and Hatred’

By Kenrya Rankin Aug 17, 2016

After running a year-long campaign that he launched by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says he rejects “bigotry and hatred and oppression.”

Yesterday (August 16), Trump—or his social media manager—hopped on Facebook to post about his latest stance:

At press time, the post had 128,000 reactions, 22,038 shares and 8,300 comments.

Over the course of his campaign for president of the United States, Trump has called for banning Muslims from entering the United States, said that judges of Mexican descent are incapable of doing their jobs, encouraged violence toward people who don’t support him and initially refused to denounce the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.

On the same day that he posted the above missive, Trump gave a speech at a campaign event just outside Milwaukee—a city that was the scene of a massive post-police shooting uprising over the weekend. From that speech:

Those peddling the narrative of cops as a racist force in our society—a narrative supported with a nod by my opponent—share directly in the responsibility for the unrest in Milwaukee, and many other places within our country.

They have fostered the dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America.

Everytime we rush to judgment with false facts and narratives—whether in Ferguson or in Baltimore—and foment further unrest, we do a direct disservice to poor African-American residents who are hurt by the high crime in their communities.

During the last 72 hours, while protestors have raged against the police here in Milwaukee, another 9 were killed in Chicago and another 46 were wounded. More than 2,600 people have been shot in Chicago since the beginning of the year, and almost 4,000 killed in President Obama’s hometown area since his presidency began.

How are we serving these American victims by attacking law enforcement officers?

The war on our police must end. It must end now.