Former White House aide Marc Short on Sunday acknowledged the White House handled its response to last year's violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., poorly.

"The White House didn’t handle it as well as it could have from a [public relations] perspective," Short said on ABC's "This Week."

Short, who left his post as White House legislative affairs director last month, said that President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE mixed up his messaging, but refuted assertions that the president has never called out white supremacists by name.

ADVERTISEMENT

He noted that the president gave a statement condemning racism and hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

"So we say the president didn’t call it out by name but he did," Short said. "We mixed the messages which was unfortunate and wrong but the president did call it out and too often we don’t actually remember that."

Former White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short on Pres. Trump saying there were "very fine people on both sides" in the wake of Charlottesville: "That was mixed messaging and that was unfortunate, but to say that he never called them out is also wrong" #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/dcROI370qP — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 12, 2018

Anchor Jon Karl noted that in the same remarks, Trump asserted there were "very fine people" on both sides in last year's white nationalist rally and that there was blame on "both sides" for the violence.

Short reiterated that the White House mixed up its messaging, calling Trump's remarks "unfortunate."

Short was hired at the University of Virginia after leaving the White House, but faced pushback from faculty there for his role in the Trump administration.

This weekend marks the anniversary of last year's rally in Charlottesville. Hundreds of people are expected to attend a sequel rally in Washington, D.C., both to protest and counterprotest.

Trump tweeted on Saturday that he condemns "all types of racism."