Trump Blames ‘Alt Left’ for Charlottesville Violence

President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed the “alt left” for inciting violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday that he said led James Fields to “murder” a protester. “You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible and it was a horrible thing to watch. But there is another side,” Trump said, adding there were “very fine people on both sides” of the demonstrations. “Do they have any semblance of guilt?” Trump said of the so-called “alt-left.” The president said he waited two days to condemn neo-Nazis and white supremacists by name because “I like to know the facts” beforehand. “You don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts,” Trump said during a press conference at Trump Tower. Trump himself has, of course, not hesitated to jump to conclusions with regard to terrorist attacks.