Dem senator: ‘This is not my president’

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Tuesday that he does not recognize President Trump as his president after Trump doubled down on his claim that both white supremacists and counterprotesters were responsible for the outbreak of violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

“As a Jew, as an American, as a human, words cannot express my disgust and disappointment,” Schatz wrote on Twitter. “This is not my President.”

As a Jew, as an American, as a human, words cannot express my disgust and disappointment. This is not my President.

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) August 15, 2017

Trump defended himself on Tuesday against bipartisan criticism that he was slow and equivocal in condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists who incited violence during demonstrations in Charlottesville on Saturday.

In a combative news conference in New York, the president said he wanted to “know the facts” before condemning the right-wing groups. 

He also revived his claim from Saturday that it wasn’t just white supremacists that were responsible for the violence, saying “alt-left” groups were “very, very violent” in opposing the right-wing demonstrators, who had initially planned to protest the city’s decision to remove a Confederate statue from a park.

“This week, it is Robert E. Lee and this week, Stonewall Jackson. Is it George Washington next?” he said. “You have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”