President Trump called for unity Saturday in the wake of clashes between white supremacists and counter-protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, demanding “the division must stop, and must stop right now.”
“Ideally we have to love each other,” Mr. Trump said from his golf club in New Jersey, where he’s taking a working vacation, and was signing into law a veterans health bill.
Lawmakers from all sides of the political debate condemned the white nationalists who were rallying in Virginia, and most of them also condemned the counter-protests that combined for riots that reportedly left one person dead.
The president said he offered federal assistance to Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a conversation earlier in the day.
“We agreed that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now,” Mr. Trump said.
But where some put the blame on the white nationalists alone, Mr. Trump, who has faced historic resistance to his presidency, suggested the problems ran across the political spectrum, and said it all needs to stop.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides — on many sides,” he said.
He said the wounds stretch back well beyond the current political environment.
“Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama — it’s been going on for a long, long time,” he said. “It has no place in America.”
He also said the clashes were dissonant at a time when the country is “doing very well in so many ways.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.