Sometimes what President Trump doesn’t say causes his aides more headaches than things he does.

The White House on Sunday defended the president’s failure to explicitly condemn white supremacists over deadly violence a day earlier in Charlottesville, Va. He faulted “many sides” in his remarks Saturday, yet aides suggested Trump’s implicit denunciation of right-wing hate groups was clear.

Criticism of the president poured in for a second day, including from some GOP allies who added their voices to the chorus of opprobrium from Democrats. Citizens and advocacy groups expressed outrage as well, attributing the president’s omission to a reluctance to alienate those in his base sympathetic to the hate groups.

Vice President Mike Pence, on a trip to South America, explicitly condemned such groups. And although his comment was worded in such a way as to seem to speak for the president, it also served to underscore Trump’s growing isolation over his failure to voice a similarly specific condemnation.


“We have no tolerance for hate and violence, white supremacists or neo-Nazis or the KKK,” Pence, who has denied having any ambition to run in the 2020 election, told reporters in Cartagena, Colombia.

In the face of mounting criticism, the president’s national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, said Trump would have more to say on the subject.

“I’m sure you will hear from the president more about this,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Another senior administration official, though, suggested that the president’s omission had not been accidental.


When White House homeland security advisor Tom Bossert was asked about Trump’s blaming of “many sides,” suggesting equal culpability for the white supremacist groups and the counter-protesters, Bossert said the president had opted not to “dignify the names” of white nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations.

After a lengthy back-and-forth with host Jake Tapper of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Bossert eventually made specific reference to white nationalist groups, though without affirming the president shared his views.

“I think you’ve belabored it, so let me say I condemn white supremacists, and Nazis, and groups that favor this type of exclusion,” he said.

Two days of provocative protests by white supremacists in the normally quiet Virginia college town took a lethal turn on Saturday when a car plowed into a crowd, killing a woman, and a state police helicopter crashed, leaving two officers dead.


1 / 29 Police stand watch near the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the center of Emancipation Park the day after the Unite the Right rally devolved into violence in Charlottesville. White nationalists had gathered in the city Saturday, in part, to protest the removal of the statue. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 2 / 29 People mourn Sunday at a memorial to 32-year-old Heather Heyer of Charlottesville, who was killed the day before when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against a white nationalist rally. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 3 / 29 Women hug as they bring flowers and balloons to the corner of Fourth and Water streets, where a car sped into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring dozens at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. (Tasos Katopodis / European Pressphoto Agency) 4 / 29 A woman places flowers at a memorial on Sunday for 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people in Charlottesville, Va., the day before. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 5 / 29 Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, center, prays with Alvin Edwards, pastor of Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, on Sunday in Charlottesville, a day after violence errupted around the Unite the Right rally, a gathering of white nationalists. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 6 / 29 Mourners hug as they bring flowers and balloons to the corner of Fourth and Water streets, where a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. (Tasos Katopodis / European Pressphoto Agency) 7 / 29 Police stand watch Sunday near the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the center of Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Va. White nationalists rallied in the city in part to protest the pending removal of the statue. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 8 / 29 Authorities work near the scene of a deadly helicopter crash near Charlottesville, Va., where white nationalists had gathered for one of their largest rallies in at least a decade. (Shelby Lum / Associated Press) 9 / 29 People gather for a vigil in Charlottesville, Va., after Saturday’s violence. (Tasos Katopodis / EPA) 10 / 29 People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. (Ryan M. Kelly / AP) 11 / 29 A vehicle drives into a group of protesters in Charlottesville, Va. The mayor said at least one person was killed. (Ryan M. Kelly / AP) 12 / 29 Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. (Steve Helber / AP) 13 / 29 People receive first aid after a car plowed into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Va. (Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images) 14 / 29 People receive first aid after a car drove into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA. (Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images) 15 / 29 People receive first aid after a car ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA. (Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images) 16 / 29 People receive first aid after a car ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Va. (Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images) 17 / 29 A counter-protester hurls a newspaper box toward white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right during the Unite the Right rally outside Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 18 / 29 White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right are forced out of Lee Park after the Unite the Right rally was declared an unlawful gathering in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 19 / 29 White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va. (Steve Helber / Associated Press) 20 / 29 White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” clash with counter-protesters as they enter Lee Park during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 21 / 29 White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” clash with counter-protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 22 / 29 As far-right groups gathered for one of their largest demonstrations in at least a decade, counter-protesters squared off and brawls began. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 23 / 29 A man makes a slashing motion across his throat toward counter-protesters while marching with other white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” during a rally in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 24 / 29 White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter-protesters at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va. (Steve Helber / AP) 25 / 29 White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” square off against counter-protesters on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 26 / 29 A man kicks a protest sign during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 27 / 29 White nationalist demonstrators accost counter-protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Va. (Steve Helber / AP) 28 / 29 Hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” are confronted by counter-protesters as they march down East Market Street toward Lee Park during the “United the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) 29 / 29 Counter-protesters rally against the “Unite the Right” demonstration in Charlottesville, Va. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Trump’s response added another layer of controversy, following a week in which his unfiltered utterances roiled the capital and the world beyond. He had unnerved many Americans and allies with bellicose threats against nuclear-armed North Korea, picked a fight with the most powerful Republican in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and thanked President Vladimir Putin — sarcastically, the White House said — for slashing the staff of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia.

But the seeming moral equivalence he assigned to hate groups and those protesting against them seemed to touch a particularly raw national nerve, given the United States’ history with race.

Trump’s aides often are forced to try to clarify the president’s intent when he fails to address a particular point, or does so in a way that raises additional questions, and frequently they argue he did say something when he had not. McMaster suggested on ABC’s “This Week” that the president’s Saturday statement from his New Jersey golf club was a condemnation of the white supremacist movement.


“The president’s been very clear,” McMaster said. “We cannot tolerate this kind of bigotry, this kind of hatred.”

That seemed to contradict, however, his suggestion in the NBC interview that Trump may have failed to articulate his repudiation of specific hate groups — making further comment from him likely.

Still, McMaster said, “He condemned hatred and bigotry on all sides, and that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis. I think it’s clear. I know it’s clear in his mind.”

Trump himself remained silent. But an unnamed White House spokesperson issued a statement Sunday also suggesting Trump had sufficiently condemned the groups — specifically naming them as he had not, while continuing to suggest broader blame.


“The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups,” said the statement, given to reporters covering Trump as he vacations in Bedminster, N.J. “He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

McMaster also said that the car attack on a crowd of counter-protesters that killed a 32-year-old woman should be considered an act of domestic terrorism.Authorities identified the driver as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, who participated in the marches, and arrested and charged him with second-degree murder.

Trump has made no such suggestion of terrorism. The Justice Department said late Saturday that it was opening a civil rights investigation.

The Democratic mayor of Charlottesville, Michael Signer, offered fresh criticism of the president, suggesting his particular responsibility to speak out against hate groups.


“Look at the campaign he ran,” Signer said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Look at the intentional courting, both on the one hand all of these white supremacist, white nationalist groups like that, anti-Semitic groups, and then look on the other hand: the repeated failure to step up and condemn, denounce, silence, put to bed, all of those different efforts just like we saw yesterday.”

Republican allies likewise advised Trump to actively repudiate white supremacists who describe themselves as his supporters. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” said: “I would urge the president to dissuade these groups that he’s their friend.”

Another Republican senator, Cory Gardner of Colorado, said, “They shouldn’t be claimed as part of a base. Call it for what it is — it’s evil; it’s white nationalism.”

Even disgraced former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci weighed in with advice to Trump to be more explicit.


“I think he needed to be much harsher as it related to the white supremacists and the nature of that,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who is a White House advisor, used language more specific than that of her father in condemning the Charlottesville violence. In her first response, a tweet on Sunday morning, she declared that there should be “no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”

laura.king@latimes.com

Twitter: @laurakingLAT


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UPDATES:

6:15 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Vice President Mike Pence.

This article was originally published at 2:15 p.m.