Trump condemns violence by ‘antifa’ movement
President Donald Trump on Thursday condemned the violence by the antifascist protest movement known as “antifa,” saying their tactics around the country have proved him right for denouncing bad actors on both sides of the racially charged clashes with white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., last month.
Trump said he explained his views on antifa to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., during their private meeting at the White House a day earlier. Scott had expressed disgust with Trump’s handling of the Charlottesville aftermath.
“We had a great talk yesterday,” Trumpsaid, during an on-record discussion with reporters on Air Force One en route back to Washington from a trip to view hurricane relief efforts in Naples, Fla. “I think especially in light of the advent Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., met with the president to discuss racist violence. of antifa, if you look at what’s going on there, you have some pretty bad dudes on the other side also and essentially that’s what I said.”
The president added that “because of what’s happened since then with antifa, when you look at really what’s happened since Charlottesville, a lot of people are saying, and people have actually written, ‘Gee, Trump may have a point.’ I said there’s some very bad people on the other side also.”
Trump faced widespread political backlash after he waited two days to specifically condemn the hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, that organized the Unite the Right rally.
Even after denouncing the hate groups by name, Trump within days mounted a defense of his initial response, asserting there were some “very fine people” among t he marchers and suggesting both sides were to blame for the violence.
Trump said Scott presented legislation he was working on to help create jobs and put people to work, which Trump said he supported.
Asked whether the senator had pressed him to add high- ranking African Americans to his staff and administration, Trump said: “We did talk about that, yeah. It’s something I do and I certainly would continue to do. We talked about that. I told him I would do it and he knows we’ve already done it. But I told him, and I told him very strongly, I like that.”