In an explosive, combative Tuesday press conference, President Donald Trump blasted media coverage of white nationalism, defended groups who assembled to protest the removal of a Charlottesville statue of Robert E. Lee, drew an equivalence between “both sides” of protesters, and accused “alt-left” counter protesters of “charging in with clubs in their hands.”
Trump’s statements mirrored Saturday remarks which were celebrated by white supremacists and panned by everyone else, and essentially nullified his clarifying statement Monday which explicitly denounced neo-Nazis.
“You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent,” Trump said. “Nobody wants to say it, but I will say it right now.”
“What about the alt-left that came charging in at the alt-right?” Trump said. “Do they have any semblance of guilt?”
Twitter users pulled out some his more inflammatory comments:
Trump: “I looked the night before, if you look, there were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.” pic.twitter.com/wFCiVtEF5f
— Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) August 15, 2017
This is an alt-right dream right here. He’s carving them out from the neo-Nazis when they were marching side-by-side. https://t.co/Bj83xVHReJ
— David French (@DavidAFrench) August 15, 2017
Trump also had more unkind words for the CEOs who have left his manufacturing council in protest, saying they “weren’t taking their jobs seriously,” and adding “I have to tell you, some of the folks that will leave, they are leaving out of embarrassment, because they made their products outside.”
