A Republican lawmaker criticized President Trump on Twitter shortly after his press conference Tuesday in which he blamed “both sides” for violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday that left one dead and more than 19 injured.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) ripped Trump in a message posted Tuesday afternoon for returning “back to relativism” with his remarks.
The Florida Republican’s rebuke of her own party’s president comes amid a swarm of furious Democratic criticism, including from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
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“There is only one side to be on when a white supremacist mob brutalizes and murders in America. The American people deserve a president who understands that,” Pelosi said Tuesday afternoon.
Trump on Tuesday defended his initial response to the violence, and doubled down on his assertion that demonstrators “on many sides” deserve blame for the violence on Saturday that left a woman dead after a man who police say has white nationalist ties rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.
“I will tell you something. I watched those very closely, much more closely than you people watched it,” Trump said on Tuesday. “And 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 on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent.”