Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday called on President Donald Trump to address the nation and apologize for his remarks about a bloody rally in Charlottesville, Va., warning of "an unraveling of our national fabric" if Trump doesn't take "remedial action in the extreme."
"Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn," Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, said in a Facebook post.
With his post, Romney, who was highly critical of Trump during last year's campaign but was later considered by Trump for secretary of state, became the latest high-profile Republican to speak out about the president's comments, in which he blamed both sides for the hate-fueled violence at a gathering organized by white supremacists.
Romney said the Republican president's words had hurt the morale of the military and threatened U.S. security.
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"Our allies around the world are stunned and our enemies celebrate," Romney wrote. "America's ability to help secure a peaceful and prosperous world is diminished. And who would want to come to the aid of a country they perceive as racist if ever the need were to arise, as it did after 9/11?"
In the post, Romney suggests that Trump acknowledge his comments were wrong in an address to the nation and "state forcefully and unequivocally that racists are 100% to blame for the murder and violence in Charlottesville."
James Murdoch, chief executive officer of 21st Century Fox and son of conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch, also criticized Trump for his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, saying Thursday that it concerns "all of us as Americans and free people."
Murdoch is the son of the company's co-executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, a Trump confidant.
James Murdoch, like Apple CEO Tim Cook, said he and his wife would donate $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League, which battles hate groups across the country.
In an email addressed to "friends" first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by numerous media outlets Thursday night, Murdoch said it has not been his "habit to widely offer running commentary" on a day-to-day basis.
"But what we watched this last week in Charlottesville and the reaction to it by the President of the United States concern all of us as Americans and free people," Murdoch wrote.
He added: "I can't even believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis. Or Klansmen, or terrorists. Democrats, Republicans, and others must all agree on this, and it compromises nothing for them to do so."
Separately, all 16 of the prominent artists, authors, performers and architects on the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned Friday, in protest of Trump's "hateful rhetoric."
"Reproach and censure in the strongest possible terms are necessary following your support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans in Charlottesville," the committee members said in a letter addressed to Trump. "The false equivalencies you push cannot stand."
The letter's signatories include artist Chuck Close, author Jhumpa Lahiri, architect Thom Mayne and Jersey Boys actor John Lloyd Young.
Created in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan to advise the White House on cultural matters, the committee is known for developing programs like Turnaround Arts, which aims to improve academic performance and increase student engagement through the arts.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, meanwhile, met Friday to discuss a range of issues, resulting in a flurry of public statements on civil rights. The eight-person commission, an independent, bipartisan federal agency, also issued a statement about the Charlottesville violence.
"White supremacy and religious intolerance dishonor national commitments we have forged over time ... and violence in the name of these ideologies must be met swiftly and forcefully with condemnation and an unwavering and unified response," the commission said in a joint statement.
Information for this article was contributed by John Wagner, Fred Barbash and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post; by Robin Pogrebin of The New York Times; and by Jonathan Lemire, Darlene Superville and Julie Bykowicz of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/19/2017