“We must be clear,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday after Trump’s remarks. “White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.” | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Ryan, House and Senate GOP outraged by Trump news conference

President Donald Trump sparked a barrage of Republican outrage on Tuesday after he blamed “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia — including from House Speaker Paul Ryan.

“We must be clear,” Ryan said after Trump’s remarks. “White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.”


Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on Twitter, “Mr. President, you can't allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of blame.” Added Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.): “This is simple: we must condemn and marginalize white supremacist groups, not encourage and embolden them.”

Many other Republicans also slammed the remarks Trump made at a news conference in New York in which he doubled down on his initial reaction to the violence that broke out over the weekend at a white supremacist rally where one woman was killed when a car rammed into counter-protesters.

“I think there’s blame on both sides,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at Trump Tower. “I have no doubt about it.”

Republicans have often been critical of Trump in the past, but the rebuke from members of his own party to his Charlottesville response was swifter and more widespread than perhaps at any point in his presidency.

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House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), now in rehabilitation after being shot during a June congressional baseball practice, responded on Twitter: “I was clear about this bigotry & violence over the weekend and I'll repeat it today: We must defeat white supremacy and all forms of hatred.”

Also on Twitter, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) said: “@POTUS must stop the moral equivalency! AGAIN, white supremacists were to blame for the violence in #Charlottesville.”

And Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) added: “We are Americans from all walks of life, working towards the American Dream. Nowhere in that dream is there room for racism.”

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Kentucky Republican had no new comment in response to Trump’s remarks Tuesday.

Democrats also responded with outrage.

In a statement, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that by not taking sides, Trump had clearly shown what side he’s on.

“When David Duke and white supremacists cheer your remarks, you’re doing it very, very wrong,” Schumer said. “Great and good American presidents seek to unite, not divide. Donald Trump’s remarks clearly show he is not one of them.”

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said on Twitter that Trump is “not my president.”

“As a Jew, as an American, as a human,” he wrote, “words cannot express my disgust and disappointment.”

Seung Min Kim and Rachael Bade contributed to this report.