From Crux:
Two senior Catholic Church leaders in the United States issued separate calls on Monday for an apology from U.S. President Donald Trump, after Trump shared a video meme using a racist trope to depict former U.S. President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit each issued a statement on Monday calling on Trump to apologize and clarify, calling the harm done by his action real and saying his explanations for his behavior are inadequate.
“Our shock is real,” said Cupich. “So is our outrage. Nothing less than an unequivocal apology – to the nation and to the persons demeaned – is acceptable. And it must come immediately.”
“I join my voice to the many calling for a public apology with full acceptance of responsibility,” Weisenburger wrote, “and I also bristle at claims from the White House that the rage many of us feel is ‘fake’.”
The offensive meme, an animated depiction of apes with the Obamas’ faces superimposed, was the tail part of a longer video rehearsing long-debunked claims the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.
