Politics

NAACP Tells Trump Not To Attend Civil Rights Museum Opening

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

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Robert Donachie Capitol Hill and Health Care Reporter
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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced Tuesday that its members do not want President Donald Trump to attend the grand opening of a Mississippi-based civil rights museum, noting that his attendance would be divisive and distracting.

“President Trump’s statements and policies regarding the protection and enforcement of civil rights have been abysmal, and his attendance is an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said Tuesday. “He has created a commission to reinforce voter suppression, refused to denounce white supremacists, and overall, has created a racially hostile climate in this nation.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Tuesday’s press briefing that the president plans to attend the opening ceremony.

“Looking ahead, the President will visit Mississippi on Saturday, where they are celebrating the state’s bicentennial, 200 years of statehood,” Sanders told The White House press corps Tuesday afternoon. “To mark the occasion, the President will participate in the grand openings of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.”

Trump was criticized in August for his comments following the Charlottesville protests. The president said that both white supremacist groups and counter-protestors were at fault for the violence that ensued in Virginia in August.

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