White House says Trump condemns hate groups
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — The White House scrambled Sunday to elaborate on President Donald Trump’s response to deadly, race fueled clashes in Charlottesville, Va., as he came under bipartisan scolding for not clearly condemning white supremacists and other hate groups immediately after the altercations.
As the chorus of criticism grew, White Houses aides were dispatched to the morning news shows, yet they struggled at times to explain the president’s position. A new White House statement on Sunday explicitly denounced the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, but it was attributed to an unnamed spokesperson and not the president himself.
Vice President Mike Pence condemned “these dangerous fringe groups” and said they“have no place in American public life and in the Americandebate.”
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, remained out of sight and silent, save for a few retweets. One was about two Virginia state policemen killed in a helicopter crash while monitoring the Charlottesville protests, another about a Justice Department probe into the violence.
In the hours after a car plowed into a group of antiracist counter-protesters on Saturday, Mr. Trump addressed the violence in broad strokes, saying that he condemns “in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.”
The White House statement Sunday went further. “The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.” It added: “He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”
The White House did not attach a name to the statement. Usually, a statement would be signed by the press secretary or another staffer; not putting a name to one eliminates an individual’s responsibility for its truthfulness and often undercuts its significance.
The president’s daughter and White House aide, Ivanka Trump, tweeted Sunday morning: “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”
On Saturday, Republicans joined Democrats in criticizing the president for not specifically calling out white nationalists. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., tweeted: “Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.” Added Sen. Marco Rubio, RFla.: “Nothing patriotic about #Nazis, the #KKK or #WhiteSupremacists It’s the direct opposite of what #America seeks to be.”
White nationalists had assembled in Charlottesville to vent their frustration against the city’s plans to take down a statue of Confederal Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Alt-right leader Richard Spencer and former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke attended the demonstrations. Mr. Duke told reporters that the white nationalists were working to “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.”
Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, a Democrat, slammed Mr. Trump’s stance toward hate groups, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he hopes Mr. Trump “looks himself in the mirror and thinks very deeply about who he consorted with.”
Mr. Trump, as a presidential candidate, frequently came under scrutiny for being slow to offer his condemnation of white supremacists. His strongest denunciation of the movement has not come voluntarily, only when asked, and he occasionally trafficked in retweets of racist social media posts during his campaign.