Report: Trump Went Off Script When He Blamed 'Many Sides' During Charlottesville Statement
- 7 years ago
President Trump went off script when he blamed "many sides" during his Charlottesville statement, reports ABC News.
President Trump has been facing significant backlash over his initial response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and one of the main issues has been over a phrase he reportedly improvised.
According to ABC News, which cites two White House sources, the president “...went off script and used his own words Saturday when he made that controversial decision to condemn ‘many sides’ of the unrest...rather than to single out white supremacists…”
Trump had said on Saturday, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides, on many sides.”
The ABC report adds, “‘Those were his own words,’ one senior White House official said of the ‘on many sides’ comment, explicitly adding that those three words ‘were not’ in his prepared remarks.”
Even Republican operative Karl Rove picked up on the alleged ad-lib and told Fox News that is where the speech became “a missed opportunity” for Trump; Rove said, “I thought that was a great beginning. But then he veered off, and clearly he was not reading off of his script. He said 'on many sides.’”
Trump issued a stronger follow-up statement Monday saying, “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 all that we hold dear as Americans.”
President Trump has been facing significant backlash over his initial response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and one of the main issues has been over a phrase he reportedly improvised.
According to ABC News, which cites two White House sources, the president “...went off script and used his own words Saturday when he made that controversial decision to condemn ‘many sides’ of the unrest...rather than to single out white supremacists…”
Trump had said on Saturday, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides, on many sides.”
The ABC report adds, “‘Those were his own words,’ one senior White House official said of the ‘on many sides’ comment, explicitly adding that those three words ‘were not’ in his prepared remarks.”
Even Republican operative Karl Rove picked up on the alleged ad-lib and told Fox News that is where the speech became “a missed opportunity” for Trump; Rove said, “I thought that was a great beginning. But then he veered off, and clearly he was not reading off of his script. He said 'on many sides.’”
Trump issued a stronger follow-up statement Monday saying, “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 all that we hold dear as Americans.”