More forceful response:
President Trump condemns hate groups, says “racism is evil.”
WASHINGTON — Under relentless pressure, President Trump on Monday named and condemned “repugnant” hate groups and declared that “racism is evil” in a far more forceful statement than he’d made earlier after deadly, racefueled weekend clashes in Charlottesville, Va.
Trump’s initial failure on Saturday to denounce the groups by name — instead he bemoaned violence on “many sides” — prompted criticism from fellow Republicans as well as Democrats. This time, the president described members of the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as “criminals and thugs” in a statement he read at the White House.
“Racism is evil,” he said, singling out the hate groups as “repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans.”
“Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America,” he said.
In his remarks he also called for unity.
“We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans,” he said.
Trump also, for the first time, mentioned Heather Heyer by name, as he paid tribute to the woman killed when a car plowed into a group of antiracist counterprotesters in Charlottesville.
The president left after his statement without acknowledging reporters’ shouted questions. At an event on trade later in the day, he was asked why it took two days for him to offer an explicit denunciation of the hate groups.
“They have been condemned,” Trump responded before offering a fresh criticism of some media as “fake news.”
Trump noted that the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the car crash that killed Heyer.
“To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered,” he said.
Republicans joined Democrats over the weekend in criticizing the president for not specifically calling out white nationalists. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said Sunday on NBC, “This isn’t a time for innuendo or to allow room to be read between the lines. This is a time to lay blame.”
Also Monday, CEOs of three companies said they are resigning from the President’s American Manufacturing Council. Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck, the nation’s thirdlargest pharmaceutical company, Brian Krzanich, CEO of computer chip maker Intel, and Kevin Plank, the CEO of athletic wear manufacturer Under Armour, said they are leaving Trump’s council.
Jonathan Lemire is an Associated Press writer.