Bridgewater, New Jersey (CNN)President Donald Trump, a man known for his bluntness, was anything but on Saturday, failing to name the white supremacists or alt-right groups at the center of violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Charlottesville officials: 1 dead, 19 injured after crash near 'Unite the Right' rally
Charlottesville officials: 1 dead, 19 injured after crash near 'Unite the Right' rally
Instead, the man whose vicious attacks against Hillary Clinton, John McCain, federal judges, fellow Republican leaders and journalists helped define him both in and out of the White House simply blamed "many sides."
Trump stepped to the podium at his New Jersey golf resort and read a statement on the clashes, pinning the "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. ... It has been going on for a long time in our country -- not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama," he said. "It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America."
Fellow Republicans slammed Trump's lack of directness and attempt to inject moral equivalence into the situation of chaos and terror.