Trump blast from within
DONALD Trump’s apparent refusal to condemn far-right hate groups after a white nationalist rally in Virginia turned deadly has been attacked by politicians, many from his own party.
Violence in the southern college town of Charlottesville led to the death of one person and more than 30 were hurt when a suspected neo-Nazi drove a car through a crowd of anti-racism protesters.
While the US President’s national security adviser described the attack as an act of terrorism, Mr Trump was criticised for waiting too long to address it and, when he did, failing to explicitly condemn the white supremacist marchers who ignited the melee.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides,” Mr Trump said on Saturday.
“On many sides.
“It’s been going on for a long time in our country.
“Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.”
Conservative and moderate Republican senators condemned Mr Trump’s response to Charlottesville.
Senator Cory Gardner, of Colorado, urged the President to condemn “white supremacists” and to use the term.
Mr Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster said: “Any time that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it is terrorism.”
Senator Marco Rubio said the President needed to define the events as “domestic terrorism” at the hands of white supremacists.
Even former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci — also known as “the Mooch” — criticised Mr Trump’s response.
“With the moral authority of the presidency, you have to call that stuff out,” Mr Scaramucci told US ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Mr Scaramucci blamed the influence of White House strategist Steve Bannon for Mr Trump not fully condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis as terrorist groups.
Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer blamed the rhetoric of Mr Trump’s presidential campaign for emboldening white supremacists.
“Look at the campaign he ran,” he said.
“Look at the intentional courting ... of these white supremacist, white nationalist groups and ... the repeated failure to step up and condemn, denounce, silence, put to bed, all of those different efforts just like we saw yesterday, and this is not hard.”