WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times EDT):
7:45 a.m.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford has strongly endorsed the statements by the leaders of the four major U.S. military services, who spoke out against racism and extremism after last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
During a visit Thursday to Beijing, Dunford said: “I have seen the chiefs’ tweets and I can absolutely and unambiguously tell you that there is no place for racism and bigotry in the U.S. military or in the United States as a whole.”
He said the “chiefs’ statements were important. They were speaking directly to the force and the American people.”
Dunford said the intent was “to the force, to make it clear that that kind of racism and bigotry is not going to stand inside the force. And to the American people, to remind them of the values for which we stand in the U.S. military, which are reflective of what I believe to be the values of the United States.”
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7:15 a.m.
President Donald Trump has abruptly disbanded two of his White House business councils in the latest fallout from his combative comments on racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Wednesday’s decision came as the White House tried to manage the repercussions from Trump’s defiant remarks a day earlier, in which he blamed the violence at a white supremacist rally on “both sides.”
Trump himself stayed out of sight Wednesday, but he returned to Twitter early Thursday to chastise Sen. Lindsey Graham for remarks the South Carolinian made about Trump’s take on Charlottesville. He also had harsh words for Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican.
He posted one tweet saying that “publicity-seeking Lindsey Graham falsely stated that I said there is moral equivalency” between the white supremacists and the counter-demonstrators at Saturday’s violent protest.
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