Trump has explicitly stated that "both sides" were at fault for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and claimed there were some "very fine people" marching in the Unite the Right rally. Now he claims he never said this.

There's a familiar pattern to the president's incessant lying: he says something demonstrably false, gets destroyed by the press and public for lying, then he claims everyone else is lying about whatever it was he said.

Over the past few days, Trump has explicitly stated that "both sides" were at fault for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and claimed there were some "very fine people" marching in the Unite the Right rally.

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“What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right?” Trump said at his chaotic press conference on Tuesday. “Do they have any semblance of guilt?”

“I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,” he said.

“You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists,” Trump said. “The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”

“You also had some very fine people on both sides,” he said.

Trump was raked over the coals by almost everyone, including many members of his own party. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is a frequent critic of Trump, said the president “took a step backward by again suggesting there is moral equivalency between the white supremacist neo-Nazis and KKK members who attended the Charlottesville rally” -- an uncontroversial statement based on Trump's own words. The president took exception to this and launched an attack on Graham today, claiming he didn't say what he clearly did:

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Trump then went after the mythical #FakeNews that has apparently misrepresented his statements by, well, reporting on them:

When does this end? How many times can the president make false statements, support bigotry and then attack everyone else for accurately reporting on what he said? Where is the accountability? As the Commander in Chief, Trump is ultimately responsible for the fate of his country and if he can't take responsibility for very basic things (like his own words) what hope is there that he can fulfill his role as the leader of the world's most powerful democracy?

At some point this charade has got to stop. Trump is rapidly losing control of his presidency and it seems no one around him is willing to intervene and stop the madness. Those who are still standing by his side need to think very carefully about their own futures. Because as the ship goes down, those who choose to stay will die a slow and painful political death alongside their president whose reign is effectively over anyway.