Adam Schiff: Trump is hesitant to ‘repudiate’ the ‘bigots’ who support him

“The fundamental problem here is that the president of the United States can’t bring himself to repudiate a part of his support, and that is that small group of bigots that are supporters of his,” the California Democrat told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Trump has faced backlash after a press conference earlier this week when he said there were “very fine people” on “both sides” during the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va.

Last weekend, clashes between white supremacists and counter-protesters lead to the death of three people, including one woman hit by a car by an alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer and two police killed in a helicopter during a security patrol.

Trump told reporters on Tuesday that some counter-protestors were “very, very violent.”

“He’s taken a position that is essentially, ‘if you’re with me, you can do no wrong,'” Schiff said on CNN about Trump’s hesitancy to take a harder stance against such racist groups.

Also in the interview, Schiff echoed calls from his Democratic colleagues for the president to fire senior policy advisor Stephen Miller and national security aide Sebastian Gorka from the White House.

“People like Miller and Gorka and others, who not only I think represent the same thing that Steve Bannon did, but aren’t capable doing the job well,” he said, adding, “So yes, I think there’s more cleaning house that ought to take place.”

Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, left the White House on Friday after a tumultuous seven months in the administration, in which critics accused the former chief strategist of of bringing populist and nationalist ideas to policy fruition.

Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke praised Trump’s impromptu press conference on Tuesday, saying on Twitter: “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa.”

Trump was criticized during the 2016 presidential election for refusing to condemn Duke during an interview with Tapper in February. He then said a faulty earpiece prevented him from hearing the question fully, before finally condemning Duke and the KKK in March.

Alt-right leader Richard Spencer said he was “really proud” of Trump following his Tuesday remarks.

“He bucked the narrative of Alt-Right violence, and made a statement that is fair and down to earth. C’ville could have hosted a peaceful rally — just like our event in May — if the police and mayor had done their jobs. Charlottesville needed to police the streets and police the antifa, whose organizations are dedicated to violence,” he told the Atlantic’s Rosie Gray in a text message.

Both Duke and Spencer were in Charlottesville last weekend.