Trump defends fascist protest
American president slammed for failure to denounce racists
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said that “both sides” were to blame for violence at a white supremacist rally over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, abandoning his message from a day earlier that emphasised the culpability of the groups that organised and participated in the event.
In a remarkable show of defiance, Trump insisted during a combative exchange with reporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan that there were “two sides to a story”, just a day after he had belatedly condemned racist hate groups for the mayhem that left a woman dead and many other people injured.
Two state troopers also died in a helicopter crash near the scene.
Trump – chafing at the political backlash over his handling of the situation and his aides’ attempts to rein him in – also appeared eager to cast aspersions on the counter-protesters, who he said acted “very, very violently”.
He also made clear that he believed many of the participants in the Unite the Right rally were taking part in a lawful demonstration against the Charlottesville city council’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a public square.
“You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay?” Trump said. “And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
A car, allegedly driven by a neo-Nazi sympathiser, ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters at the demonstration, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 people.
The rally was organised by fascist groups, including Klu Klux Klan supporters, white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
Trump’s remarks represented a rebuke of the broad array of political, civic and cultural leaders who had called on him over the past few days to denounce the hate groups and offer support for the victims of the violence.
Under mounting pressure to set a clear moral tone, he lashed out defensively against criticism that he had fanned the flames of racial divisions and, in doing so, failed a crucial test of his presidency.
Trump appeared far more passionate in defending many of the rally participants than he had in his more muted denunciation of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis a day earlier.