GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis suggested President Donald Trump would have faced heavy criticism no matter what he said, in response to Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville that left 19 injured and one dead.
“Some of these things you say are fair points, no doubt about it. But had he [Trump] said everything people say he should have said, would his critics have simply praised him for that or would they have found something else?” DeSantis asked during a Monday interview on CNN’s “New Day.”
DeSantis stressed that any type of racial or ethnic nationalism was a perversion of America’s founding, and needed to be rejected.
“The Founding Fathers didn’t found America because of European nationalism,” he said. “They founded the country based on principle, not based on any type of ethnic origin. That’s not healthy for our politics and so I think it would be good for the president to tell people that’s how he feels. And here’s the thing I think that that’s how he feels, knowing him.”
DeSantis said that comparing Trump to a Nazi is absurd, given his strong track record on Israel.
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