Donald Trump calls out ‘alt-left,’ doubles down on remarks blaming both sides for Virginia violence
WASHINGTON—Donald Trump was criticized around the country for the Saturday speech in which he faulted “many sides,” rather than white supremacists, for the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
When he finally relented two days later, giving a scripted address in which he specifically denounced the right-wing racists, he was applauded by many pundits. The racists themselves, though, kept smiling, saying Trump’s revised words were clearly insincere.
The racists were right.
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On Tuesday, in the angriest public tirade of his two years in national politics, the president revealed that he meant what he had said in his first statement: the “other side,” made up of liberal and left-wing protesters, was just as responsible as the people with the swastikas.
“There is another side,” Trump said. “You can call them the left … they came, violently attacking” the right, “swinging with clubs” and with baseball bats.
It was an astonishing spectacle even for the Trump era: the president of the United States vehemently defending an extremist demonstration in which some participants chanted “Jews will not replace us” and carried Nazi flags — and during which an alleged white supremacist is accused of murdering a peaceful counter protester and injuring numerous others.
“Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,” Trump said. “Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”
Source:thestar.com