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At 7:51 this morning, President Donald Trump finally commented, via tweet, on the tragedy that Portland has been processing throughout the weekend.
The @Potus account tweeted today: "The violent attacks in Portland on Friday are unacceptable. The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are w/ them."
Trump's response to the Portland killings comes three days after the attacks—and following a Sunday where several national figures decried his silence.
One such chiding came from Dan Rather, the former CBS Evening News anchor.
On his Facebook yesterday afternoon, Rather posted an open letter to the President, urging him to take notice of the murder of Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best and the injury of Micah Fletcher.
Rather's post, which has hundreds of thousands of shares, likes and comments, urged Trump to at the least mention the slain men's name in a tweet. He added of the radio silence from the White House, "Perhaps Portland, Oregon is off your radar. It is, after all, a rather liberal place."
The full letter reads as follows:
Prior to the tweet about Portland, the @Potus feed featured re-tweets from the personal account of Donald J. Trump. Those included pictures of Trump and Melania in Italy and condemnation what he calls "The Fake News Media."
So far there has been no further mention of Friday's attacks from President Trump or his administration, though Mayor Ted Wheeler's request for federal permits to be canceled for upcoming alt-right rallies may change that.
