Trump declares 'racism is evil' amid pressure over Charlottesville The president was widely criticized for waiting until Monday to specifically condemn the hate groups that marched over the weekend.

President Donald Trump on Monday denounced the white supremacist groups whose rally in Virginia on Saturday turned deadly, criticizing “racist violence” in remarks that were much more direct in their condemnation than his initial, widely panned response.

“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,” Trump said in televised remarks Monday afternoon from the White House. “Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.”


Trump's remarks in the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room lasted just longer than five minutes, and his comments on Saturday's episode in Charlottesville were preceded by a preamble in which the president touted his administration's economic successes. Nowhere in his remarks did he label Saturday's clash, which left one woman dead, an act of terrorism, a characterization others in his administration and other Republicans have used.

That the president waited until Monday to specifically condemn the hate groups that marched over the weekend had raised eyebrows and recalled multiple episodes from his 2016 campaign in which the president was forced to distance himself, often after a delay and under public pressure, from symbolism and language tied to white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups. On Monday, Trump did not respond to reporters' shouted questions as to why it had taken him two days to explicitly denounce white supremacy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and newly installed FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed Trump on Monday before his statement on the clashes in Charlottesville.

Earlier in the day, administration officials rushed to defend Trump's first response to the weekend's deadly violence, insisting that he had already condemned the ideology of hate groups. Those groups, ostensibly gathered for a rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, clashed with counterprotesters. The violence peaked when a man drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people, authorities said.

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The president’s first comments came Saturday from his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he decried “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” A White House statement Sunday sought to clarify the president's position as condemning white supremacists, but the statement was attributed only to an unnamed White House official, stoking questions about why it was issued behind a cloak of anonymity.

Trump's initial statement that "many sides" were to blame struck critics as equating the actions of hate groups with those of counterprotesters. Vice President Mike Pence, however, told NBC that Trump was referring to past, unrelated protests in which there were attacks on law enforcement.

Sessions insisted there was no ambiguity in the president’s initial statement.

"He made a very strong statement that directly contradicted the ideology of hatred, violence, bigotry, racism and white supremacy," Sessions told NBC’s “Today” show Monday. "Those things must be condemned. They're totally unacceptable. ... He's been firm on this from the beginning. He is appalled by this."

It was unclear Monday why Trump finally decided to make additional remarks or whether it would stem the flow of withering bipartisan criticism.

Prominent Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wrote online after Trump's first statement, “We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.”

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, addressed Trump directly on Twitter, writing: “Mr. President — we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”

Michael Signer, Charlottesville’s Democratic mayor, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday that Trump’s remarks had left the president “on the sidelines” of a “country that really needs to progress and heal and tell the truth about a lot of chapters in our history.” Signer, who was among those urging Electoral College voters not to certify Trump’s 2016 victory, connected the violence in his city over the weekend to the president’s campaign.

“Look, I think some of this speaks for itself. We saw the campaign that they ran, we saw the folks they surround themselves, we saw what [former Ku Klux Klan leader] David Duke, you know, people like that say about the president,” Signer said. “I think that Charlottesville is going to be synonymous with the nation at long last turning the page on this horrific chapter in American politics where bigots and, you know, the fringe of the fringe were invited into the mainstream, out from the shadows where they belonged.”

Trump’s handling of the issue could even disrupt his policy agenda. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier announced via his company’s Twitter account Monday morning that he would resign from the president’s American Manufacturing Council. Frazier wrote that “our country’s strength stems from its diversity.”

“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” Frazier's statement said. “As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”

Trump responded on Twitter by attacking Merck: “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

Hours later, two other CEOs announced they were leaving the council. The first was Under Armour's Kevin Plank, who said in a company tweet, "There is no place for racism or discrimination in this world."

"I love our country & company," he added. "I am stepping down from the council to focus on inspiring & uniting through power of sport."

A short while later Intel's chief, Brian Krzanich, wrote in a company blog that he was resigning "to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues."

He concluded: "My request — my plea — to everyone involved in our political system is this: set scoring political points aside and focus on what is best for the nation as a whole. The current environment must change, or else our nation will become a shadow of what it once was and what it still can and should be."

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.