White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert on Sunday defended President Trump's decision to not specifically name hate groups in his condemnation of the violence at a white supremacist rally one day earlier in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday.

"The president not only condemned the violence and stood up at a time and a moment when calm was necessary and didn't dignify the names of these groups of people, but rather addressed the fundamental issue," Bossert told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

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"What you need to focus on is the rest of his statement. The president didn't just call for human beings to respect one another, which is his pragmatist, core fundamental bare minimum, but he called for ideally Americans to love one another, for all of God's children to love one another. That is a fundamental assault on the hatred that we're seeing here," he continued.

The president condemned the violence in Charlottesville on Saturday, but said "many sides" were responsible.

Trump, who lambasted former President Obama for not saying "radical Islamic extremism," did not call out white supremacists by name in his remarks.

One counter-protester died during the protests in Charlottesville on Saturday, and dozens of others were injured.