Chief strategist Steve Bannon's position in the White House appears as precarious as it's ever been following a weekend of violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a stewing showdown with national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

Democrats and liberal activists are intensifying calls for Bannon's ouster as they attempt to tie him to a weekend gathering of white nationalists and ensuing car crash that caused the death of one counterprotester and injuries to around 20 other people. They contend that Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, is an enabler of the so-called alt-right movement that's been associated with white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-Semitism.

His continued presence as a top Trump adviser amid the raised voice of racists means "it is now the White Supremacists' House," charged Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California reiterated her previous call for the firing of Bannon, dubbing him an "alt-right white supremacist sympathizer."

But it's the rumblings from associates of President Donald Trump that are most threatening to Bannon's topsy-turvy tenure in the West Wing.

Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," McMaster declined three times to say whether he could work with Bannon, who has opposed the general on a policy proposal for more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. On ABC's "This Week," former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said ominously, "I think the president knows what he's going to do with Steve Bannon," and then inferred that Bannon was responsible for leaks that undermined Trump's agenda.

"He has to move away from that sort of Bannon-bart nonsense," Scaramucci said of the president.

Also over the weekend, Roger Stone, a longtime outside adviser to Trump, tweeted that Bannon is a "credit-hogging bumbler." On Friday, Stone jabbed that his friend recently mistook Bannon "for a homeless bum," and he continued to pummel Bannon on Monday, making the counterargument that he hasn't done enough to protect the alt-right influence at top rungs of the administration.

Bannon has been in Trump's doghouse before. When the 63-year-old Virginia native clashed with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also serves as a principal adviser to the president, Trump tersely instructed them to work out their differences. Bannon's abrupt removal from the National Security Council around the same time in April was seen as a victory for McMaster, who was seeking to take charge of the apparatus. A February Time magazine cover featuring Bannon, along with the release of a book highlighting his campaign role, also didn't help his cause with Trump, who bristles at ceding the limelight to aides.

And yet Bannon was proclaimed to be back in Trump's good graces just over a month ago, when Axios declared him "ascendant." "He's clearly going to stay, after being long rumored to be on the outs," Axios' Mike Allen wrote on July 5. On Saturday, the same website reported Bannon's job was in "fresh jeopardy," citing sources who said the president believes he is to blame for White House leaks. The suspicion comes amid a Breitbart-fueled effort to undermine McMaster.

The outbreak of racial unrest in Charlottesville and Trump's reluctance to pinpoint white supremacists as culprits until Monday poured additional kerosene on the debate over Bannon's influence on the president.

As a well-read historian and master of dark political combat who once proudly touted Breitbart as a platform for the alt-right, Bannon is a powerful steward of Trump's nationalist posture.

Following the election last November, he told The Wall Street Journal he considered himself "an economic nationalist" who has admired nationalist movements throughout the world. But, he added, "I've never been a supporter of ethno-nationalism."

Bannon declined to comment on the record for this story. But an ally says any attempt to equate the views Bannon holds to the white-supremacist rancor exhibited in Charlottesville is beyond the pale.

"Linking him to Charlottesville is absurd, absolutely absurd," says Patrick McSweeney, a former GOP state chairman in Virginia and a friend of Bannon's.

He adds, "Steve is an invaluable asset to Trump. There would be a huge outcry if he were to be cut. I don't know if they've calculated how big it would be."

The president's second attempt Monday at a response to Saturday's tragedy was a tacit admission that his initial statement fell short.

Facing burgeoning criticism for blaming "many sides" for the violence – rather than the fringe right-wing extremists who descended upon Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a Confederate statue – Trump identified such groups in a midday statement from the White House.

"No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag and we are all made by the same almighty God," he said. "Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

But it still was too little, too late for many of Trump's critics, who assumed he was strong-armed into delivering the remarks for political purposes.

The hashtag #FireBannon continued to percolate Monday on Twitter. And GOP strategist Rick Wilson, a vociferous Trump opponent, said the president's words rung false to him because they didn't include a pledge to purge "this vile and repugnant movement from American political life" by dismissing staffers who are viewed as allies of the alt-right.