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| Donald Trump blames 'both sides' for Charlottesville at press conference | Donald Trump blames 'both sides' for Charlottesville at press conference |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Donald Trump defended far-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Tuesday, insisting that “not all of those people were neo-Nazis, not all of those people were white supremacists”. | |
| He also condemned leftwing counter-protesters who came to the Virginia university town to challenge the far-right marchers. | He also condemned leftwing counter-protesters who came to the Virginia university town to challenge the far-right marchers. |
| The remarks – during a rowdy press conference inside the lobby of Trump Tower – were the latest twist in three days of controversy since Trump first responded to Saturday’s events in which Heather Heyer died after white nationalist James Alex Fields Jr drove his car into a crowd. | |
| Trump initially blamed violence “on many sides” before apparently reluctantly giving a statement on Monday denouncing racism as evil. | Trump initially blamed violence “on many sides” before apparently reluctantly giving a statement on Monday denouncing racism as evil. |
| Speaking on Tuesday, he insisted that many of those in the crowds brandishing Nazi flags and engaging white power salutes were simply “there to protest the taking down the statue of Robert E Lee.” | Speaking on Tuesday, he insisted that many of those in the crowds brandishing Nazi flags and engaging white power salutes were simply “there to protest the taking down the statue of Robert E Lee.” |
| Trump went on to equate Lee and fellow Confederate general Stonewall Jackson with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. | Trump went on to equate Lee and fellow Confederate general Stonewall Jackson with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. |
| While all four men were slaveholders, neither Washington nor Jefferson ever rebelled against the US in an attempt to protect the institution of slavery from federal interference. | While all four men were slaveholders, neither Washington nor Jefferson ever rebelled against the US in an attempt to protect the institution of slavery from federal interference. |
| The president went on to repeatedly equate both protesters and counter-protesters: . “I’m not putting anybody on a moral plain,” said Trump. “You had a group on one side and group on the other and they came at each other with clubs – there is another side, you can call them the left, that came violently attacking the other group.” Trump went on to say: “You had people that were very fine people on both sides.” | |
| He also declined to attack the so-called “alt-right” and sparred with reporters about what he termed the “alt-left”. Trump insisted that reporters should define the “alt-right” to him and instead condemned the “alt-left” for “charging at people without a permit and they were very, very violent”. The president insisted to the assembled press that he knew more about the events in Charlottesville because he “had watched this very closely, much more closely than you people watched it”. | |
| Trump added: “ You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists and the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.” | |
| Trump did condemn Fields, the driver of the car, saying he “is a disgrace to himself his family and his country” and called him “a murderer”. | |
| The president also fired back at media criticism of his initial response to the violence in Charlottesville on Saturday when he infamously condemned “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” rather than explicitly calling out neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Trump insisted: “I wanted to make sure that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday was a fine statement.” | |
| The statement was widely criticized by lawmakers from both parties, including senior Republicans who were quick to describe the events as an act of domestic terrorism. | |
| Trump, who insisted yesterday “before I make a statement I need the facts”, has long been prone to weighing in on breaking news events without the full information. In June, he condemned what he called “a terrorist attack” in the Philippines. The attack was actually a failed attempt to rob a casino in Manila. | |
| In addition to his comments about Charlottesville, the president also weighed in on White House palace intrigue and seemed to throw his top aide Steve Bannon’s future into doubt. | |
| Although he insisted Bannon was “not a racist” and made clear “I like Mr Bannon, he’s a friend of mine”, Trump did not offer any guarantees of job security to the former editor of Breitbart. “We’ll see what happens,” said Trump about Bannon’s continued employment at the White House. | |
| Trump’s remarks met immediate criticism from both parties. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the most senior Republican on Capitol Hill, reprised remarks about his brother who died in the second world war. | |
| “I was just eight years old when my older brother Jesse was killed in World War II,” said Hatch on Instagram. “As I said on Saturday, Jesse didn’t give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. I will never hesitate to speak out against hate--whenever and wherever I see it.” | |
| On the left, the Democratic senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii tweeted: “As a Jew, as an American, as a human, words cannot express my disgust and disappointment. This is not my President.” | |
| Trump’s press conference did find praise from David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who was one of the protesters in Charlottesville on Saturday. Duke tweeted : “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa.” | |
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