On Tuesday, Republican lawmakers called for moral clarity and sharply criticized remarks made by the president after he again assigned blame to “both sides” for the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
Many members of Congress had already rebuked Trump days ago for not pointedly calling out the far-right groups behind the planned “Unite the Right” rally Saturday. The president at the time denounced violence, hatred, and bigotry on “many sides.”
He reiterated a version of those comments on Tuesday, one day after condemning the KKK and neo-Nazis by name in prepared remarks.
“What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, the alt-right, do they have any semblance of guilt?” Trump said Tuesday during a press conference about infrastructure. “What about the fact they came charging with clubs in hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do.”
In their second such censure since Saturday, GOP allies and critics took to Twitter following the president’s remarks.
We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 15, 2017
The President needs to clearly and categorically reject white supremacists. No excuses. No ambiguity.
— Ed Royce (@RepEdRoyce) August 16, 2017
There is no defense or justification for evil in the form of white supremacists and Nazis. None.
— Dean Heller (@SenDeanHeller) August 16, 2017
There’s no moral equivalency between racists & Americans standing up to defy hate& bigotry. The President of the United States should say so
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) August 16, 2017
Mr. President,you can’t allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of blame.They support idea which cost nation & world so much pain 5/6
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 15, 2017
Blaming “both sides” for #Charlottesville?! No. Back to relativism when dealing with KKK, Nazi sympathizers, white supremacists? Just no.
— Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) August 15, 2017
This is simple: we must condemn and marginalize white supremacist groups, not encourage and embolden them.
— Senator Todd Young (@SenToddYoung) August 15, 2017
Trump on Tuesday said that “not all” rally-goers Saturday were white supremacists. He noted that the rally had been organized to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
“There were people in that rally . . . protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” he said. “I’m sure in that group there were some bad ones. The following day it looked like they had some rough, bad people. Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them.”
“But you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest and very legally protest,” he said, and added that the “Unite the Right” rally-goers had a permit to do so.
