House Speaker Paul Ryan said Monday President Trump “needed to do better” with his response to the protests in Charlottesville a little more than a week ago, particularly saying he “messed up” in his press conference last Tuesday when he said all of the protesters were not bad people.
“The president and I spoke on Monday morning about the need for moral clarity, about the need for this very difficult moment in our country to have a morally clear message, to absolutely and singularly condemn this repulsive bigotry. He agreed with that and he did that later that day on Monday, and I thought his speech on Monday was pitch perfect,” Ryan said, referring to Trump’s comments on Monday in the wake of his initial comments where he said “many sides” were to blame for the incident.
“Then the next day … I think he made comments that were much more morally ambiguous. Much more confusing. And I do think he could have done better. He needed to do better,” Ryan said. “I do believe that he messed up in his comments on Tuesday when it sounded like a moral equivocation, or at the very least, moral ambiguity when we need extreme moral clarity.”
“It was not only morally ambiguous; it was equivocating,” Ryan said.
The Wisconsin Republican also stressed that, along with the president, others need to do more to combat bigotry and racism.
“I don’t think any of us have done enough … We have a lot more to do in this area,” Ryan said, adding later Trump personally need to do a better job. “I think he needs to do better, and I think he did today,” Ryan said, referring to the president’s prime-time address on the situation in Afghanistan.
