Trump made a statement in front of the cameras.
He condemned "all sides" involved at Charlottesville equally and left it at that.
He should have condemned all sides for violence but then separately and also the racists whose bigotry and hatred has no place in America.
He should have said frankly that the Confederacy existed to fight a war to preserve race slavery, and that that is not a cause any American should be proud of.
He should have commended the Charlottesville authorities for taking down monuments to the causes of racism and slavery, and expressed pleasure America was finally taking another step away from that.
But he knows full well that prominent among those who celebrate him and support him are those who celebrate the Confederacy and retrospectively support it.
And he has thrown stage winks in their direction all the way through his campaign and his presidency.
But men like David Duke, possibly the most famous white nationalist, directly tied Saturday's protests to Trump.
"We are determined to take this country back. We're gonna fulfill the promises of Donald Trump," Duke said in an interview with The Indianapolis Star on Saturday in Charlottesville.
"That's why we voted for Donald Trump because he said he's going to take our country back."
When Trump tweeted earlier on Saturday that everyone "must be united & condemn all that hate stands for," Duke grew angry, feeling that the man who help bring white nationalist to this point was slamming them.
He urged Trump -- via Twitter -- to "take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists."
Though earlier in the day Trump billed Saturday's event as a press conference, the President declined to respond to shouted question that would have allowed him to directly take on white nationalists.
"Mr. President, do you want the support of these white nationalist groups who say they support you, Mr. President? Have you denounced them strongly enough," one reporter shouted.
"A car plowing into people, would you call that terrorism sir?" another asked.
Trump walked out of the room.
Orrin Hatch, Marco Rubio, and several other GOP leaders condemned the president for not expressly condemning the racists.
Paul Ryan and John McCain were also forthright.
Ryan wrote on Twitter Saturday that "the views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant."
"Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry," he continued. He later added "White supremacy is a scourge. This hate and its terrorism must be confronted and defeated."
McCain issued a passionate statement Saturday evening in response to the rally and the car attack.
"Our Founders fought a revolution for the idea that all men are created equal," his statement read.
"The heirs of that revolution fought a Civil War to save our nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to that revolutionary proposition. Nothing less is at stake on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, where a violent attack has taken at least one American life and injured many others in a confrontation between our better angels and our worst demons."
"White supremacists and neo-Nazis are, by definition, opposed to American patriotism and the ideals that define us as a people and make our nation special," McCain continued.
"As we mourn the tragedy that has occurred in Charlottesville, American patriots of all colors and creeds must come together to defy those who raise the flag of hatred and bigotry."
Virginia governor to white nationalists: 'Go home ... shame on you'
Here are some marchers from this "Unite the right" rally.
The pic is from Huffpo.
A car plowed into the counter protesters killing one and injuring 19.
Police are looking at this as deliberate homicide.
A reasonable guess is that it was a white nationalist act of terrorism.
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