President Donald Trump on Tuesday clashed with reporters over his response to the Charlottesville, Virginia attack, during an extraordinary press conference at Trump Tower.
In addition to equating Neo-Nazis with what he described as the “alt-left,” Trump once again blamed “both sides” for a violent outbreak that resulted in the death of a 32-year old counter-protester and he demanded to know whether members of the media “like” George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Trump insisted he “didn’t wait long” to make a statement condemning white nationalism, arguing he “wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement.”
“The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement but you don’t make statements that direct unless you know the facts,” Trump said. “It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don’t know the facts. It is a very, very important process to me. So I don’t want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement.
“When I make a statement, I like to be correct,” he continued. “I want the facts.”
