The Atlantic

Trump Defends White-Nationalist Protesters: 'Some Very Fine People on Both Sides'

The president backtracked from his remarks on Charlottesville just a day earlier.
Source: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Trump defended the white nationalists who protested in Charlottesville on Tuesday, saying they included “some very fine people,” while expressing sympathy for their demonstration against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was a strikingly different message from the prepared statement he had delivered on Monday, and a reversion to his initial response over the weekend.

Speaking in the lobby of Trump Tower at what had been billed

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