'There's Blame On Both Sides': Trump Backtracks On Charlottesville Violence
Updated at 6:19 p.m. ET
In a stunning reversal from comments he made just one day prior, President Trump said on Tuesday "there's blame on both sides" for the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
On Monday, Trump specifically called out the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists in a choreographed statement read at the White House — but that was two days after his initial statement on the protests, for which he was criticized for not condemning those groups and instead cited violence "on many sides."
On Tuesday, Trump was back home at Trump Tower in New York City and took questions from reporters in an impromptu, highly combative press conference that was expected to be limited to statements by the president and members of his Cabinet about infrastructure.
The gathering of white nationalists over the weekend in Charlottesville resulted in multiple injuries and the death of one woman, who was killed after a car rammed into a group of counterprotesters. The suspect has been denied bond and charged with second-degree murder.
The demonstrators — donning Confederate flags and swastikas, many carrying guns and shields — came to the college town to protest the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. They were met with counterprotests, and violence erupted on Saturday.
Trump faced widespread criticism for what was seen as an insufficient statement about the events on Saturday. Seeming to bow to those critiques on Monday, he delivered a new statement and placed blame on white supremacist groups.
Tuesday's reversal came during a live televised event about infrastructure attended by some members of his Cabinet. Trump took questions from reporters, who asked about his earlier statements and their timing. When pressed, the president pushed back and began placing blame on counterprotesters and the "alt left." The views of the so-called alt-right are widely seen as anti-Semitic and white supremacist.
Trump also took particular umbrage at the idea that he had waited too long to condemn the hate groups.
"I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct. Not make a quick statement," the president said. "The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement. But you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts. And it's a very, very important process to me....I want to know the facts."
However, in the past Trump has rarely shown restraint .
