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Alveda King Defends Trump Response to White Supremacist Violence in Charlottesville

Alveda King appearing on "Fox & Friends Weekend" on August 13, 2017

Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr. and a Trump-supporting Religious Right activist, defended Trump’s response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. She spoke on "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Sunday, where she said that racism and hatred are sin. But unlike some conservatives who publicly criticized Trump’s refusal to denounce white supremacists, King defended Trump’s response. Here’s part of the exchange between Fox’s Abby Huntsman and Alveda King, which followed King denouncing racism and saying we need to learn to live together:

Huntsman:

It’s a similar message that we heard from President Trump yesterday, just this message of unity, what we should stand for as Americans, what’s the American flag mean, you know, the symbolism of God and patriotism – that was his message yesterday. He didn’t identify one group or another. He’s been criticized by a lot of people for not making this more one-sided. Do you think that that’s fair?

King:

I had so many texts and tweets and messages, ‘the president should do this,’ ‘the president should do that,’ but in serving God and serving America, he’s got to speak to the hearts of everyone. That’s why my dad, Rev. A.D. King, my uncle Martin Luther King Jr., my granddaddy Daddy King, we were working then to transform in the '60s, ‘cuz I marched and went to jail, I was blown up by the Ku Klux Klan in our home, but we knew that the goal was to transform the laws and transform the human hearts towards compassion. In order to move towards that, we’ve got to stop the violence, the president is right about that.

Huntsman:

Well said.

King, an anti-abortion activist, is also a “prelate” of the council of POTUS Shield, a network of Pentecostal leaders who believe Trump was ordained by God and who are engaged in “spiritual warfare” to protect his presidency.