Q Was it terrorism, in your opinion, what happened?
THE PRESIDENT: As I said on — remember, Saturday — we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in America. And then it went on from there.
Now, here’s the thing —
Q (Inaudible) many sides.
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Excuse me. Take it nice and easy. Here’s the thing: When I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts. This event just happened....
..., I like to know the facts.
Q Why do Nazis like you — (inaudible) — these statements?
THE PRESIDENT: They don’t. They don’t.
Q They do. Look —
(Cross-talk.)
THE PRESIDENT: How about a couple of infrastructure questions.
Q Was it terrorism, that event? Was that terrorism?
Q The CEO of Walmart said...
THE PRESIDENT: Say it. What?
Q The CEO of Walmart said ...
THE PRESIDENT: Not at all. I think the country...
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: I’d do it the same way...
Q Nazis were there.
Q David Duke was there.
THE PRESIDENT: I didn’t know David Duke was there...
Q Was this terrorism?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family, and this country. And that is — you can call it terrorism. You can call it murder. You can call it whatever you want. I would just call it as “the fastest one to come up with a good verdict.” That’s what I’d call it. Because there is a question: Is it murder? Is it terrorism? And then you get into legal semantics. The driver of the car is a murderer. And what he did was a horrible, horrible, inexcusable thing.
Q Senator McCain said that the alt-right is behind these attacks...
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know. I can’t tell you....But when you say the alt-right, define alt-right to me. You define it. Go ahead.
Q Well, I’m saying, as Senator —
THE PRESIDENT: No, define it for me. Come on, let’s go. Define it for me.
Q Senator McCain defined them as the same group —
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, what about the alt-left that came charging at — excuse me, what about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?
Let me ask you this: What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. As far as I’m concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day.
Q You’re not putting these —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. I’m not finished. I’m not finished, fake news...
Q Sir, you’re not putting these protestors on the same level as neo-Nazis —
Q Is the alt-left as bad as white supremacy?
THE PRESIDENT: I will tell you something...
And you have — you had
a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now.
You had a group — you had a group on the other side that came charging in, without a permit, and they were very, very violent.
Q Is the alt-left as bad as Nazis?
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.
Q Do you think that what you call the alt-left is the same as neo-Nazis?
THE PRESIDENT: Those people — all of those people –excuse me, I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue of Robert E. Lee.[
Q The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest —
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t put themselves — and you had some very bad people in that group, but
you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: ...You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue...
Q George Washington and Robert E. Lee are not the same.
THE PRESIDENT: George Washington was a slave owner. ... How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?
Q I do love Thomas Jefferson.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue?
So you know what, it’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people — and
I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets, and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group.
Q Who are the good people?
Q Sir, I just didn’t understand what you were saying. You were saying the press has treated white nationalists unfairly? I just don’t understand what you were saying.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no. There were people in that rally — and I looked the night before — if you look, there were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. I’m sure in that group there were some bad ones. The following day it looked like they had some rough, bad people — neo-Nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them.
But you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest, and very legally protest — because I don’t know if you know, they had a permit. The other group didn’t have a permit. So I only tell you this: There are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country — a horrible moment.
But there are two sides to the country.
Does anybody have a final —
Q I have an infrastructure question.
THE PRESIDENT: You have an infrastructure —