A United Nations committee last week criticized the Trump administration’s response to events in Charlottesville, using striking language. The White House was specifically rebuked for “its failure at the highest political level to unequivocally reject and condemn the racist violent events and demonstrations.”
With this in mind, Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday whether Donald Trump’s racially inflammatory postures makes it more difficult to advocate on behalf of American values. Tillerson’s response, to put it mildly, was unexpected.
TILLERSON: Chris, we express America’s values from the State Department. We represent the American people. We represent America’s values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over. And that message has never changed.
WALLACE: And when the president gets into the kind of controversy he does and the U.N. committee response the way it does, it seems to say they begin to doubt whether we’re living those values.
TILLERSON: I don’t believe anyone doubts the American people’s values or the commitment of the American government or the government’s agencies to advancing those values and defending those values.
WALLACE: And the president’s values?
TILLERSON: The president speaks for himself, Chris.
Take a moment to appreciate the significance of Tillerson’s point. To hear the nation’s chief diplomat tell it, the sitting president of the United States does not speak for the United States. The State Department, under Tillerson’s vision, expresses America’s values, but Donald Trump expresses nothing but his own perspective.









