WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that both the left and the right contributed to the violence in Charlottesville in Virginia state over the weekend.
“I think there’s blame on both sides. I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either,” Trump said during a press conference in Trump Tower in New York city.
“You had a group on one side that was bad, you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, but nobody wants to say that,” Trump said.
Trump said the alt-left group were also “charging at the alt-right with clubs.” “Do they have any problems? I think they do,” he said.
Further questioning the leftist groups who rallied for taking down a statue of Confederate general Robert Lee in Charlottesville, Trump said the trend of abolishing memorials of figures associated with slavery was concerning.
“So this week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?” he said, adding “where does it stop?”
Trump also defended his initial response to the violence by saying that he was avoiding jumping to conclusion before gathering all the facts.
Trump came under attacks Saturday after stating that “many sides” displayed violence in the town which claimed three lives. He clarified on Monday that white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan were among the groups that instigated the violence.
