Trump can't stop blaming 'both sides' for the violent Charlottesville rally

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump, whose comments about "both sides" being in the wrong at a violent white supremacist rally in Virginia last month caused an uproar, revisited his remarks on Thursday, saying he was right to call out the "bad dudes" in the anti-fascist (antifa) movement.

After counter-protester Heather Heyer, 32, was killed at the rally in Charlottesville, Trump condemned the violence, blaming "many sides." At a later press conference, Trump said "not all those people were neo-Nazis, not all those people were white supremacists. You had people that were very fine people on both sides." When asked Thursday about his meeting Wednesday at the White House with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), where he discussed the country's history of racism with the only black Republican senator, Trump told reporters they had a "great talk," and launched into a rehash of his earlier controversial comments.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.