The violence that occurred in Charlottesville was heartbreaking to say the least. The alt-right and other right-wing groups held their "Unite the Right" rally, which lead to one death and 19 injuries after a car ran through a crowd of counter protesters and violence broke out.
A day later, Donald Trump took his platform to not only condemn the alt-right but also place the blame on the other side a.k.a the "alt-left," in his words, which was received with much backlash. While he ended up condemning white supremacists, the KKK, neo-nazis and other hate groups that fall under the far-right, it didn't take him long to return to his original statement.
In a press conference earlier today, Donald Trump was asked why it took so long to put out a statement about the violence in Charlottesville to which he replied "it didn't take long." While it took over 48 hours for him to condemn the hate groups on the right, today he reverted back to putting an emphasis that the fault of violence in the city was on both sides.
"You had one side that was really bad and another side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say it, but I'll say it right now," Trump said "You had a group from the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent."
Trump later went on to state that not all people at the rally were white supremacists. He said that the counter protesters had a part in what happened in Charlottesville.
"Okay, what about the alt-left that came charging at — excuse me, what about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right. Do they have any semblance of guilt?" He asked a reporter.
By the end of the press conference, he continued to push his point across by saying "Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. So, this week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?"
While he continues to receive backlash from both parties, former Imperial Wizard of the KKK, David Duke, tweeted his support for the president.
Check out the presidents comments from the press conference below via TMZ:
