Posted on 08/15/2017 2:18:41 PM PDT by Hadean
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that the counter-protesters demonstrating against white nationalism were also to blame for the violence at race-fueled riots in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.
“There are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for the country, but there are two sides to a story,” the president said at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
He also said the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville was "very important" to the people who participated in the march, and asked whether opponents of such monuments were also prepared to take down statues to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because they, too, owned slaves.
"I wonder is it George Washington next?" he asked.
His remarks double down on his remarks Saturday, threatening to undo any goodwill the president received by denouncing the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis during a statement at the White House on Monday. The president was criticized for what many, including politicians on both sides of the aisle, saw as an initially tepid response in which he said “many sides” were to blame for the violence that killed one woman and injured 19 other people.
Trump defended the 48 hour delay Tuesday, saying he “wanted to know the facts” before condemning the white nationalists. He then equated the white supremacists on the right to the “alt-left.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Great press conference - only thing he should have added would be a few quotes, such as from the profs who want “white genocide” for Christmas and who think destruction of the white race is a moral calling - let’s see what side the hatred really comes from......
There are maybe 500 KKK members and Neo-NAZI’s in the country and half of them are FBI infiltrators.
They are a non-entity.
“Both sides at that protest are political garbage.”
Really? Because it looks to me like one side had a permit and was exercising its constitutionally protected right to free speech, while the other side presented itself with the specific intent and purpose of denying the first side its constitutional rights by attacking them violently.
What places the first side on the same moral plane with the second? Is exercising constitutional rights morally equivalent to denying them by violence?
Even if the first side moved to defend itself after the felonious assault by the second, that was just the exercise of another of their rights.
No, the only way the first side is at fault is in holding and speaking opinions that others find objectionable. That’s it. That’s the only thing they did wrong.
He has certainly thrown down the gauntlet.
So true. So the next time Antifa shows up in public I can expect to see you and about 90% of our fellow freezers there right? That way we can be sure there are no Nazis present. Right? So I can expect to see you there?
I gotta say that I was feeling a little down after Trump’s Statement 2.0 about Charlottesville.
But these impromptu press availabilities are killer!
As I posted last week about the last time he did this, watch for his approval numbers to go up!
#SorosSupremacists yes & mcCain too in on it
There are so many Antifa only because they get PAID to do it!
That's right, and Trump told the press that in the news conference.
However, for the record, there were fringe groups involved which others had zero control over...And like the alt left, they had no permit.
Both sides had permits. This is from an article in a local paper, the Charlottesville Daily Progress, from a day or two before the rally: "According to permits acquired from the city by University of Virginia professor Walt Heinecke, counter-protesters are expected to gather at the park and at nearby McGuffey Park and Justice Park, recently renamed from Jackson Park."
I’m glad Trump said this but the reality and truth is they shoulder almost all the blame. They started the violence and had every intention of being violent.
LOL!
“.. and he was energized by all the haters last night...”
Probably the one thing that he has in common with Obama and had all over Hillary and the other Republicans who contended for the nomination. He doubles down, he doesn’t back down. Say what one will about the Obama, but he seldom turned tail and ran when domestic opponents attacked.
Who finally got some sense into Trump’s head?
Good for Trump for not following the herd and accepting the media narrative, unlike every other Republican politician I’ve seen talk about it.
Trump himself. He quit listening to his daughter.
And Anti-First Amendment best describes them.
We need more pics of the AntiFa goons at Charlottesville in this thread.
The initial protesters were peaceful then it should show that. And when the first punch was thrown.
Next rally: be prepared with cameras. Lots of cameras to document the melee. The spread it onto the Internet for millions to see.
This is how to win the battle — with the Truth and proof of the same.
“According to permits acquired from the city by University of Virginia professor Walt Heinecke”
That’s what the evilstream misleadia fake news outlet said. I’m reserving judgment.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.