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 ...
Agree, and he was energized by all the haters last night when he arrived home at Trump tower. He knows this is war
I mean of course they are responsible as well. People are allowed to march peacefully, even neo nazis without having people show up with bats and poles trying to assault them.
Only the dumb ass media can’t see this.
lol...yup and they said it with a straight face.
The ones being violent were not counter protestors. That implies they were also peacefully demonstrating their opposition to the presence of the other groups. They weren’t. They were and should be called “rioters”.
Good will the president received from whom?? The media?? The liberals?? Are all events to be viewed through their lenses, and interpreted through their filters??
This makes it sound like the baseline for viewing any situation is from the point of view of the media in the New York/Washington axis.
And he’s right. The antifa thugs show up with baseball bats, sticks, rocks, bottles, and whatever else they can get by with. They are instigators of violence.
The entire news conference...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poFDm0WRqUo
Trump KO’d the lying media.
Expect a statement from McLame and the rest of the never Trumpers any minute now, condemning the heresy from Trump..... 
Both sides came looking for trouble, both sides started in on each other, both sides bear equal responsibility for the violence.
My complaint is that there is no alt left. Antifa IS the left now.
Truth sounds like hate to those who hate truth.
That’s OK, if they can call the right, alt right, you can call it the left, alt left.
It’s no problem.
There may have been people on both sides who came to peacefully protest, but they were outnumbered by the people on both sides who came looking for trouble. Both sides got what they were looking for.
Soros had the tiki torches left over from his/Hillary's/Obama's Ukraine coup.
In fact, most of the blame. The left, liberals and Democrats started the mess.
Faux News is agast!
They are parroting the party line of the Leftist media today.
Fox News:
“Trump doubles down: ‘Both sides’ violent in Charlottesville”
How dare he tell it like it is.
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