President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that some of the people protesting white nationalism in Charlottesville were ‘very bad people,’ doubling down on his position that both sides were responsible for the violence that took place at a race riot in August.
Trump came under fire last month for his claims that there were ‘very fine people on both sides’ of the clash and ‘many sides’ were to blame for the conflict that left one person dead.
The topic came back up during a question and answer session with journalists on Thursday.
The president mentioned the left-wing movement Antfia and said, ‘If you look at what’s going on there, you know, you have some pretty bad dudes on the other side also. And essentially that’s what I said.
‘Now because of what’s happened since then, with Antifa, you look at, you know, really what’s happened since Charlottesville a lot of people are saying, in fact a lot of people have actually written, “Gee Trump might have a point.” I said, you got some very bad people on the other side also, which is true.’
President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that some of the people protesting white nationalism in Charlottesville were ‘very bad people,’ doubling down on his position that both sides were responsible for the violence at the race riot
Trump did not say in his original response to Charlottesville that there ‘very bad people’ on both sides. He said there were ‘fine people’ on both sides.
The comment created an uproar because the original group of protesters were avowed white nationalists protesting the city’s removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Tim Scott, the Republican Party’s only black senator, lectured Trump yesterday at the White House on the history of racism in the U.S. toward African Americans and the Ku Klux Klan.
‘We had three or four centuries of rape, murder and death brought at the hands of the KKK and those who believe in a superior race,’ Scott told reporters after. ‘I wanted to make sure we were clear on the delineation between who’s on which side in the history of the nation.’
Trump told Scott he meant to say ‘there was an antagonist on the other side.’
The GOP senator reportedly told him, ‘The real picture has nothing to do with who is on the other side.’
Scott had harsh words for Trump when he made his first set of Charlottesville comments, saying then that the president had compromised his ‘moral authority.’
Yesterday, after their meeting, Scott said it ‘will take time’ for Trump to get it back.
The president had an opportunity this week to take a step in that direction, signing a resolution legislators passed unanimously in the House and Senate condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday Trump ‘looks forward’ to putting his name on the document once it lands on its desk, which should happen soon.
Trump’s ‘many sides’ and ‘both sides’ comments angered Republicans and Democrats alike in the national spotlight.
President Trump sat down with Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the U.S. Senate, earlier this afternoon for a conversation on race relations and Charlottesville
Rather than apologize, Trump contended during a campaign rally that he’d forcefully denounced racial hatred and the media was cherry-picking his statements.
‘We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,’ Trump initially said. ‘It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.’
Trump did not mention white supremacists at all in his remarks, giving rise to the criticism.
Asked Wednesday whether Trump feels, after speaking with Scott, that he should have condemned white nationalism more boldly, Sanders said the president has nothing to be sorry for.
‘The President was clear in his initial statement that he condemned hatred, bigotry, racism of all forms. He continues to stick to that message. He’s been very consistent in that fact. He and the Senator talked about that and discussed that, and agreed that that was the appropriate place to be,’ she said.
In an appearance on CBS Sunday show Face the Nation just after the attack, Scott had said, ‘It’s going to be very difficult for this president to lead if, in fact, his moral authority remains compromised.’
He declined to criticize Trump further when he spoke to reporters after his visit with the president at the White House on Wednesday.
‘I think I was clear before we met, and I was clear while we met,’ the South Carolina senator told USA Today, leaving his disagreement with Trump the past.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said during her daily briefing that Trump and Scott spoke about ‘potential solutions moving forward to bring the country together’
Scott said of the conversation, ‘We discussed everything from legislative remedies for those living in poverty, to the incident in Charlottesville, to some of the other issues that are important — diversifying staff.’
An official White House readout of the meeting said they talked about the Trump administration’s ‘relationship with the African American community, the bipartisan issue of improving race relations, and creating a more unified country.
‘President Trump remains committed to positive race relations and looks forward to continuing the dialogue with Senator Scott, the African American community, and leaders from diverse communities across the country, all of which have a wealth of perspectives and experiences with respect to this issue.’
Sanders said during her daily briefing that Trump and Scott spoke about ‘potential solutions moving forward to bring the country together.’
Scott was ‘not at all’ fixated on his displeasure with the president’s Charlottesville comments, she said.
‘They talked about it pretty in depth, but the focus was primarily on solutions moving forward,’ she stated. ‘And that was what both people came to the meeting wanting to discuss, is what we can do to bring people together, not talk about divisions within the country.’
Trump said Thursday that he and Scott ‘had a great conversation.’
‘And he also has legislation, which I actually like very much — the concept of which, I support — to get people going into certain areas and building and constructing and putting people to work. And I told him yesterday, that’s a concept I could support very easily.’
The president opened up his remarks by noting that Scott, an endorser of Marco Rubio in last year’s GOP presidential primary, has been a friend of his for years.
‘I’ve been a supporter of his when I was civilian. I was one of his earliest supporters, and I supported him when he ran,’ Trump said.
He went on to talk about Antifa and the all the people writing him to say he was right.
Antifia is loosely organized left-wing activist movement that relies on violence to convey its agenda.
Democrats on Capitol Hill had pushed last month for an official censure of the president over his Charlottesville remarks. Republicans agreed to a resolution blasting white nationalist groups.
The legislation cleared the Senate on Monday and the House on Tuesday and heads to Trump now.
In the bipartisan statement, that assault that took Heather Heyer’s life is pointedly referred to as a ‘domestic terrorist attack.’ The KKK and neo-Nazis are also called out.
Lawmakers ask Trump personally to ‘speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and White supremacy’ in the declaration.
They also call on him to use ‘all resources available’ to ‘address the growing prevalence of those hate groups in the United States.’