WASHINGTON (CBSLA.com/AP) — White nationalists have been parsing President Donald Trump's words since a deadly attack at a Virginia rally over the weekend.
A day after the president called them "criminals and thugs," some seemed quite pleased Tuesday when Trump angrily pivoted back to his initial response and spread out the blame.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists and neo-Nazis who supported Trump's campaign and have felt emboldened by his presidency praised Trump's initial reaction on Saturday, which blamed "many sides" for the violence.
They were disheartened two days later, when Trump, facing immense bipartisan pressure, belatedly criticized their hate groups by name and called them "repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."
But by Tuesday evening, Trump flipped again. Taking questions that had to be shouted in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Trump praised his initial statement that had caused so much criticism, and angrily laid blame on liberal groups advocating for the removal of Confederate statues.
Mr. Trump said the "alt-left" bears some responsibility for the violence in Charlottesville, and "nobody wants to say that," blaming violence on "both sides." The speech was widely criticized by Democrats.
"Let me ask you this," Mr. Trump said. "What about the fact that they came charging, that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs. Do they have any problem? I think they do."
"I will tell you something," the president added. "I watched this very closely, much more closely than you people watched it and you have, you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I'll say it right now. You had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent."
Lawmakers react to Trump's Charlottesville comments
The president's statements echoed an exchange Monday night on Fox News between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the show's host, Martha MacCallum.
Trump's comments also mirrored rhetoric from the far-right fringe. A post Monday by the publisher of The Daily Stormer, a notorious neo-Nazi website, predicted that protesters are going to demand that the Washington Monument be torn down.
Before this latest news conference, it had become clear that the man who rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens of people, had idolized Adolph Hitler long before he joined the white nationalist rally.
But when Trump was asked repeatedly whether this was an act of terror, Trump said only that it was "murder."
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke seemed thrilled, tweeting a link to Trump's latest comments Tuesday and saying: "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," referring to the Black Lives Matter movement and an anti-fascist group.
A day earlier, Duke had posted a video mildly criticizing Trump's prepared statement, saying "President Trump, please, for God's sakes, don't feel like you've got to say these things. It's not going to do you any good."
Also on Monday, white nationalist Richard Spencer — who popularized the term "alt-right" to describe the fringe movement mixing white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-immigration populism — told reporters that Trump's prepared statement "sounds like we might want to all bring out an acoustic guitar and sing "Kum ba yah." It's just vapid nonsense."
Occidental Dissent, a white nationalist website, posted a statement Monday saying whites had been "deserted by their president."
"He has sided with a group of people who attack us on sight and attempt to kill us and for that the Alt-Right can no longer support him. What
Donald Trump has done today is an unforgivable betrayal of his supporters," the message said.
Andrew Anglin, the publisher of The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, had praised Trump's initial reaction to the violence Saturday as "no condemnation at all ... really really good. God bless him."
Anglin dismissed Trump's Monday statement as "childish nonsense." In an email to The Associated Press before Trump's latest statements, Anglin said "If he actually believed that nonsense, or was planning on implementing it as policy, he would have said it before being bullied into it by the international thought police."
By Tuesday afternoon, The Daily Stormer posted an article entitled, "Trump Defends Charlottesville Nazis Against Jew Media Lies, Condemns Antifa Terrorists."
(TM and © Copyright 2017 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE logo TM and copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Trump Comments On Charlottesville Please, Anger, Then Please Hate Group Leaders
/ KCAL News
WASHINGTON (CBSLA.com/AP) — White nationalists have been parsing President Donald Trump's words since a deadly attack at a Virginia rally over the weekend.
A day after the president called them "criminals and thugs," some seemed quite pleased Tuesday when Trump angrily pivoted back to his initial response and spread out the blame.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists and neo-Nazis who supported Trump's campaign and have felt emboldened by his presidency praised Trump's initial reaction on Saturday, which blamed "many sides" for the violence.
They were disheartened two days later, when Trump, facing immense bipartisan pressure, belatedly criticized their hate groups by name and called them "repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."
But by Tuesday evening, Trump flipped again. Taking questions that had to be shouted in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Trump praised his initial statement that had caused so much criticism, and angrily laid blame on liberal groups advocating for the removal of Confederate statues.
Mr. Trump said the "alt-left" bears some responsibility for the violence in Charlottesville, and "nobody wants to say that," blaming violence on "both sides." The speech was widely criticized by Democrats.
"Let me ask you this," Mr. Trump said. "What about the fact that they came charging, that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs. Do they have any problem? I think they do."
"I will tell you something," the president added. "I watched this very closely, much more closely than you people watched it and you have, you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I'll say it right now. You had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent."
Lawmakers react to Trump's Charlottesville comments
The president's statements echoed an exchange Monday night on Fox News between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the show's host, Martha MacCallum.
Trump's comments also mirrored rhetoric from the far-right fringe. A post Monday by the publisher of The Daily Stormer, a notorious neo-Nazi website, predicted that protesters are going to demand that the Washington Monument be torn down.
Before this latest news conference, it had become clear that the man who rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens of people, had idolized Adolph Hitler long before he joined the white nationalist rally.
But when Trump was asked repeatedly whether this was an act of terror, Trump said only that it was "murder."
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke seemed thrilled, tweeting a link to Trump's latest comments Tuesday and saying: "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," referring to the Black Lives Matter movement and an anti-fascist group.
A day earlier, Duke had posted a video mildly criticizing Trump's prepared statement, saying "President Trump, please, for God's sakes, don't feel like you've got to say these things. It's not going to do you any good."
Also on Monday, white nationalist Richard Spencer — who popularized the term "alt-right" to describe the fringe movement mixing white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-immigration populism — told reporters that Trump's prepared statement "sounds like we might want to all bring out an acoustic guitar and sing "Kum ba yah." It's just vapid nonsense."
Occidental Dissent, a white nationalist website, posted a statement Monday saying whites had been "deserted by their president."
"He has sided with a group of people who attack us on sight and attempt to kill us and for that the Alt-Right can no longer support him. What
Donald Trump has done today is an unforgivable betrayal of his supporters," the message said.
Andrew Anglin, the publisher of The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, had praised Trump's initial reaction to the violence Saturday as "no condemnation at all ... really really good. God bless him."
Anglin dismissed Trump's Monday statement as "childish nonsense." In an email to The Associated Press before Trump's latest statements, Anglin said "If he actually believed that nonsense, or was planning on implementing it as policy, he would have said it before being bullied into it by the international thought police."
By Tuesday afternoon, The Daily Stormer posted an article entitled, "Trump Defends Charlottesville Nazis Against Jew Media Lies, Condemns Antifa Terrorists."
(TM and © Copyright 2017 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE logo TM and copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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