President Trump Defends Initial Remarks on Charlottesville; Again Blames ‘Both Sides’

President Donald Trump angrily defended himself on Aug 15 against criticism that he did not specifically condemn Nazi and white supremacist groups following the weekend’s deadly racial unrest in Virginia, and at one point questioned whether the movement to pull down statues of Confederate leaders would escalate to the desecration of George Washington.

In a long, combative exchange with reporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan, the president repeatedly rejected a torrent of bipartisan criticism for waiting two days before naming the right-wing groups and placing blame on “many sides” for the violence on Aug 12 that ended with the death of a young woman after a car crashed into a crowd. He said that “before I make a statement, I like to know the facts.” And he criticized “alt-left” groups that he claimed were “very, very violent” when they sought to confront the white nationalist and Nazi groups that had gathered in Charlottesville (VA) to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from a park. He said there is “blame on both sides.” President Trump unleashed a torrent of frustration at the news media, saying they were being “fake” because they did not acknowledge that his initial statement about the Charlottesville protest was “very nice.” Again and again, President Trump said that the portrayal of nationalist protesters in the city were not all Nazis or white supremacists, and he said it was unfair to suggest that they were.