President Donald Trump's reaction to the violence in Charlottesville was "not normal" and "not American," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a refugee from the Holocaust, said Wednesday.
"We were refugees twice, once as a result of Hitler and spent the war in England, and then came to the United States because of the communists," Albright told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports."
"I am so grateful to be in America, and I'm so saddened at everything that I've been listening to in the last three days."
Albright said she does respect the presidency, even though she's had presidents she's disagreed with, but she believes people are "normalizing" Trump, and that can't be done.
"What he's doing, he is not normal," Albright told Mitchell. "What has happened, his reaction to this is not normal."
Further, said Albright, Trump has "obviously damaged himself" by his initial comments on the Charlottesville protests, and by placing blame on both sides during his remarks in a press conference on Tuesday.
Trump also has made people wonder about the "moral equivalency" reflected in his comments, said Albright, and she finds that "so stunning, given what we know about appeasing fascists and right-wingers is the way to disaster."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and England's Prime Minister Theresa may have both made strong statements against the white supremacists involved in the Charlottesville violence, Albright pointed out.
"What we have to do, those of us that have had office and those of us that have not, [is] speak out about the fact that this is not the America that we know, that what we have to do is to understand that people have the right to speak, to free speech," said Albright. "I think whatever party or wherever we come from, America will have to stand tall again for values and not this kind of disgusting discussion."
She said that as a former diplomat, she knows she should not criticize her country when she travels abroad, but she also thinks that it is important to come out clearly that racism does not reflect the United States.
"I've been troubled generally, frankly, about the way that President Trump never talks about democracy, the kind of the values of our foreign policy have not been mentioned, and now we have sunk to this new low in terms of giving a moral equivalency to hatred," Albright told Mitchell.
Also on Wednesday, Albright called for de-escalating the situation with North Korea.
"We have to talk," she said. "There is nothing weak about talking. I hope that the administration can get its act together enough to do that."
She also commented about Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and said she wonders if he likes his job.
"You can't do diplomacy alone," Albright said. "You need to be represented, you need to have a full team at the State Department. They need to work with the Defense Department and the White House. This is where it's not kind of normal decision-making. We have no idea what the strategy is anymore."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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