Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush urged President Trump on Tuesday to act as a voice for “moral clarity” and more forcefully reject racism and hate groups.
In a series of tweets, Bush, who once battled Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, said the president should quit parsing blame for the recent violent protests in Charlottesville, Va., on various groups and call instead for unity.
Trump faced criticism in the immediate aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville for slowly and equivocally condemning violence on “many sides” and failing to call out white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups that incited violence.
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He doubled down on that assertion Tuesday, criticizing what he called the “alt-left” for violently confronting white supremacist demonstrators protesting Charlottesville’s removal of a Confederate statue from a local park.
Trump’s fiery comments came a day after he issued a brief but measured statement condemning hate groups and racism.