READERS WRITE: JULY 4

Trump acted as people felt compassion for children

President Trump has been forgiven by his supporters, including Christian Right evangelicals, for behavior and actions they would normally consider distasteful or unchristian. The depiction on TV of children being separated from their asylum-seeing mothers has touched the hearts of Trump supporters. Republican politicians claim the children in some cases are being used as pawns by criminals to gain entry into our country, or the mothers of the children are making up stories of abuse to gain asylum. No doubt this is true in some cases. Trump claimed the law was on his side in separating children from their mothers. It appeared he was using this as a negotiating tool to bring the Democrats to the immigration table; instead, evangelicals and, in general, his supporters left the table, leaving President Trump no choice. He issued an executive order allowing children to stay with their mothers.

BECKY SMITH, ROSWELL

GOP should follow their precedent on judge selection

With the resignation of Justice Kennedy from the U.S. Supreme Court, I look forward to Republican Senate leaders postponing consideration of President Trump’s nominee to replace Kennedy until after the November election and the new Senate convenes in 2019. After all, when Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Republicans argued that they would not even consider President Obama’s pick and would wait until after the 2016 presidential election to let the people vote on who they wanted to choose the next justice. They were unconcerned that the Supreme Court position remained unfilled for over a year. Surely, they will now wait until after this November’s election to let the people vote for the 33 senators who will decide if President Trump’s pick will be confirmed. Consistency and fair play are the hallmarks of Republican leaders, so I am sure they will stick to the precedent they have set.

ROBERT WISKIND, ATLANTA