But his remarks, one day after he, under pressure, explicitly condemned neo Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, left White House officials bracing for fallout from disappointed Republicans whose support he needs to govern in the coming months and years.
“Your base isn’t going to win you re-election … nor is it going to keep you a majority in Congress,” said one administration official. It was political reality that the controversy over Trump’s response would last for some time, he said.
The remarks at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday that sparked that reality at times bordered on the surreal.
Trump pulled out the statement he read on Saturday in an apparent effort to show, despite the subsequent criticism, that his initial instincts that “many sides” had been at fault were correct.
“What about the alt-left that came charging at the … alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?” he demanded, using terms that refer to right- and left-wing extremists.
He lashed out at the news media, a frequent foil, for its reporting about his reaction to the violence.
and then