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Correcting @CNN: Trump was asked about Charlottesville in a press conference in August 2017 after riots broke out between left-wing and right-wing groups over a weekend of protests and counter-protests around the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Neo-Nazis and white supremacists joined the group protesting against the statue’s removal; “Antifa” radicals joined the group protesting against the statue and against the far-right extremists.
The resulting violence, including the murder of one left-wing protester by a neo-Nazi, was almost predictable, after local officials declined to provide adequate police protection.
The media’s reaction was also predictable, as journalists suggested Trump had not sufficiently condemned the far-right groups.
In the press conference, Trump made what ought to have been a non-controversial point: that there were sincere protesters on both sides, and violence on both sides.
The media, however, took a single phrase — “very fine people” — out of context to make it appear as though the president had praised the Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, ignoring the fact that he condemned them repeatedly.
Regarding the woman who was killed — Heather Heyer was her name — Trump specifically condemned the murder and called it terrorism in the same press conference:
"I think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family and this country. And that is you can call it terrorism, you can call it murder. You can call it whatever you want. I would just call it as the fastest one to come up with a good verdict. That’s what I’d call it.
"And there is a question. Is it murder? Is it terrorism? Then you get into legal semantics. The driver of the car is a murderer, and what he did was a horrible, horrible, inexcusable thing."
Trump never said “there were equal sides to this.” He said, *referring to the issue of the statue,* that “there were very fine people on both sides.”
The transcript of the relevant portion of the press conference makes it clear Trump was referring to supporters of the statue. politico.com/story/2017/08/…
The following came after several earlier exchanges about the statue:
REPORTER: You said there was hatred and violence on both sides?
TRUMP: I do think there is blame – yes, I think there is blame on both sides. You look at, you look at both sides. I think there’s blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say.
REPORTER: The neo-Nazis started this thing. They showed up in Charlottesville.
TRUMP: Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did.
TRUMP (cont): You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.
Trump distinguished between the "very bad people" and the people who supported the statute -- and he did likewise on the left with Antifa and ordinary counter-protesters ("very fine people") who opposed the statue.
The fact that there were sincere pro-statue protesters was confirmed by the @nytimes, no less, which reported that some of the protesters who came to Charlottesville did so to support the statue of Robert E. Lee for historic reasons. breitbart.com/politics/2017/…
Given that Trump condemned the neo-Nazis several times in the same press conference, there can be no reasonable doubt as to how he felt and what he said and meant to say.
Moreover, given Trump's Jewish daughter, Jewish grandchildren, and pro-Israel policies, it is simply not credible to argue that he intended to praise neo-Nazis, or even to turn a blind eye to what they were saying or doing -- and, in fact, he did not, as the transcript confirms.
The only reason, at this point, for @ChrisCuomo and anyone else at @CNN -- including @jaketapper -- to report the Charlottesville lie as fact is to achieve a political outcome: hurting @realDonaldTrump and embarrassing his supporters.
Even if they hold a sincere belief that Trump meant to praise the neo-Nazis, or that he has not done enough to condemn the far-right in general (even as Democrats promote the antisemitic far left without consequence), they ought to acknowledge that another interpretation exists.
Reporting the Charlottesville lie as proven fact also perpetuates a sense of panic among Americans who may have real experiences of, or fear of, racism and antisemitism. @CNN and other outlets are telling them that Trump represents an imminent threat, causing needless distress.
TL;DR - Trump was talking about statue supporters, not neo-Nazis, when he talked about "very fine people." @CNN's @ChrisCuomo and others continue to report the opposite, which is #fakenews aimed at Trump that also hurts the American people. They should stop. There is no excuse.
