White House chief strategist Steve Bannon sides with President Donald Trump on his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is "proud of how Trump stood up to the braying mob of reporters," at his Tuesday press conference a source told Axios.
Many lawmakers slammed Trump for doubling down on his original statement that "both sides" were responsible for the violence which led to three deaths and at least 34 injuries, and for blaming people who were there to protest hatred and bigotry by neo-Nazis, KKK, and other white supremacist groups in town holding a rally over the removal of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's statue from a public park.
"What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right?" Trump asked. "Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands swinging clubs?"
Trump has for months considered ousting Bannon, who has faced criticism for his ties to the so called "alt-right," especially in the days after the Charlottesville incidents. Many critics have pressured the president to do so after Trump waited two days to blame white supremacists for the violence.
Trump has not consulted with Bannon over his Charlottesville response, but Bannon supposedly saw the president's presser as a "defining moment" where he decided to fully abandon the "globalists" and side with "his people," Axios reported.
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