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04th Jun 2020

Varadkar: Trump has shown an ‘absence of moral leadership’

Sarah Finnan

Leo Varadkar has commented on the situation over in the US, saying that there has been an “absence of moral leadership” in response to the ongoing protests.

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has criticised Donald Trump, responding to the current situation over in the US and saying that the President is displaying a distinct lack of “moral leadership”.

Speaking on the matter, Varadkar can be heard saying:

“As I said earlier, I think we have witnessed a real absence of moral leadership from the top in the United States. We should have had words of unity, words of comfort, words of reconciliation and we didn’t see that and that is absolutely wrong. And I’m sure that had those events happened in this country or another country we would have seen a much better response from the political leadership.”

He later added:

“Racism has many different facets. In the United States, their history of racism is a very different one to ours. It’s rooted in a history of slavery which has not yet been overcome. In Ireland, our experience with building a multi-racial society is one that is quite different and has different characteristics.”

Varadkar also accused Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett of being “not that different” to those he is denouncing over in the US – calling almost all of his party policies “populist and divisive” and saying that they’re “all about setting up ideas about elites versus the masses”.

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