In Wednesday’s edition of his morning newsletter, Axios Executive Editor Mike Allen reflected on the wildly disappointing press conference President Trump held the afternoon before by contending his remarks on the violence in Charlottesville, Va. “[set] us back decades” on race relations.

“It started with the dog-whistle presidential campaign: constant plays — some subtle, some blaring — on racial fears,” Allen wrote. “But it wasn’t until the past five days — in a fight over a Southern statue narrowly, and the stain of slavery broadly — that President Trump officially and indelibly divided the nation over race: setting us back decades, at least for now, in our common purpose of healing old, awful wounds.”