'Many sides' to blame for violent white supremacists clashes in Virginia: Trump

President Donald Trump is blaming "many sides" for the violent clashes between protesters and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.Trump also contends that the "hatred and bigotry" broadcast across the country had taken root long before his political ascendancy. Trump's comments are drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats who say he should be denouncing hate groups by name.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, a Democrat, says that he blames Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, says that the president "must call evil by its name."

A neo-Nazi website is praising the president for not condemning white nationalist groups for the demonstration that turned violent. The Daily Stormer says that Trump's comments are "good" and amount to "no condemnation at all."

US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday condemned far-right groups that staged a rally in Virginia that descended into deadly violence, saying there is “no tolerance for hate and violence.”

“We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo Nazis or the KKK,” Pence said in response to a question at a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia, where he was on the first leg of a Latin American tour.

“These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”

Pence’s comments were in contrast to those of President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the violence Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he failed to explicitly condemn white supremacists.