As follow-up in his response to the Charlottesville tragedy, President Donald Trump asserted that among those protesting the removal of the Confederate statue were some “very fine people … very fine people …”

It made me and, I’m sure, many others wonder: Do very fine people walk in file with white supremacists proudly hoisting the Nazi flag — which all branches of America’s World War II military fought so bravely against? Do they march in sympathy under those banners with angry men chanting slogans from Nazi rallies: “Blood and soil” and “The Jews will not replace us.”

And do very fine people attend such a rally in response to a flyer that prominently featured the Nazi and other racist symbols? And do fine people then attend that rally as part of an eager mob hoisting torches, wearing helmets, carrying guns and wielding clubs in an ostensibly peaceful demonstration? For which, according to the president, “they had a permit,” which the counter-protesters did not…

What?

Where and when are the moral values touted by this faith-backed president ever displayed in evidence? And, absent that display, where is the repudiation by this nation’s Christian leadership, particularly by the Evangelical community which supported and campaigned for him?

Can they imagine their Lord marching side-by-side with that torch-ignited mob? Far less, can they see their gentle savior at its front, leading them?

For shame if they can. And in shame stand Trump’s White House advisers and all congressional leaders who remain silent to those shaded utterances.

Paul Baribault, Lewiston