John Legend called on President Trump to issue a much stronger rebuke of white supremacy during a NowThis interview, following the mosque attacks in New Zealand where at least 50 people were killed.
“He needs to apologize for demonizing brown people who have tried to come here and have a better life,” Legend said. “He characterizes their desire to come here, work, and feed their family as an invasion.”
Since the attack, Trump has denied the rise of white supremacy, stating the number of those who believe in the ideology are small.
“I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems,” Trump said. “If you look at what happened in New Zealand perhaps that's what happened, I don't know.”
Legend, on the other hand, insisted there was a rise in white nationalism and Trump needed to tackle it. He termed white nationalism as a "global threat" stemming from America and its president.
“Our American president needs to say this is evil, I don't endorse it, I don't embrace it. I'm not winking at it, I'm not equivocating about it. This is evil and I speak out against it,” Legend said.
It is not the first time Trump has been called out for not using strong enough language to rebuke white supremacists. A similar incident occurred during Charlottesville.
The Charlottesville march consisted of neo-nazis proclaiming support of Confederate monuments. During the march, those opposed were in attendance and a car drove through their demonstration, killing one. The president responded to this saying there were “very fine people on both sides.”
He also refused to condemn an endorsement he received from the former so-called "Grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan," David Duke.
"When people of such influence and such stature are endorsing such a hateful, evil ideology, it emboldens those who will go out and do something really evil and nasty, like what happened in New Zealand," Legend said.
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