Donald Trump gave what was unquestionably the most depraved, unhinged, and abysmal press conference of his presidency on Tuesday afternoon. 
 
 Trump was supposed to be talking about infrastructure, but he was immediately peppered with questions about his attempt to write off this weekend’s white power riot and domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville, VA, as a case of violence between “many sides.” 
 
 Things got bad immediately. And then they got much, much worse. 
 
 First, Trump insisted his decision to wait 48 hours to condemn neo-Nazis came out of an abundance of caution, because he likes to make statements that are correct. 
 
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 “I had to see the facts, unlike a lot of reporters,” Trump insisted, despite that rarely having prevented him from tweeting out his initial, vile thoughts in other instances of suspected terrorism. 
 
 Then he refused to personally deem the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer at the alleged hands of white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. an act of terror, insisting that while “you” can call it terrorism, or murder, but he’d rather call it “the fastest one to come up with a good verdict,” whatever that means. 
 
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 He also blamed the “alt-left,” a wholly imaginary group created as a sort of moral-equivalent boogeyman by both white nationalists and some liberals to create a sense of parity between a racist movement and efforts by normal non-racists to shut them down. 
 
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 “What about the fact that they came charging – they came charging with clubs in their hands swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do.” Trump said. 
 
 The president also insisted that, nestled within the crowd of neo-Nazis and white supremacists were some pretty nice folks, who were merely protesting in defense of a Confederate statue, which he painted as a perfectly decent thing to do, rather than an explicit defense of slavery and white supremacy. 
 
 “You had some very bad people in that group,” Trump said, “but you also had people that were very fine people — on both sides.” 
 
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 Also, Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson? Just as bad as the Confederate generals. 
 
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 “What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?” Trump rhetorically asked the press pool. “Are we gonna take down the statue—’cause he was a major slave owner. Now are we gonna take down his statue?” (Leave it to Trump to stumble into a woke take.) 
 
 Finally, as a friendly reminder to a nation reeling from the 1-2 punch of a domestic terrorist attack allegedly perpetrated by a neo-Nazi sympathizer, and a president who seems constitutionally incapable of voluntarily condemning racist violence, Trump ended his conference by reminding people that, yes, he owns some property. 
 
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 Because if there’s one thing the public needs to know, it’s that the president’s house in Charlottesville “is the winery.” 
 
 One huge fan? David Duke, of course. 
 
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 You can watch the entire, monstrous thing below: 
 
 We are so, so, desperately screwed. 
 
 What was the part of Trump’s press conference that made you feel the biggest combination of insanity and despair? Let us know in the comments. 
 
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 This is a developing story and will be updated. ||||| He criticized “alt-left” groups that he claimed were “very, very violent” when they sought to confront the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups that had gathered in Charlottesville. 
 
 
 
 “Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Mr. Trump said. “So this week, it is Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” 
 
 It was a remarkable rejection of the criticism he confronted after waiting two days before naming the right-wing groups in the bloodshed that ended with the death of a young woman after a car crashed into a crowd of protesters. 
 
 Mr. Trump accused people he called the alt-left of “swinging clubs” as they “came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right.” He said some of the right-wing members of the crowd in the Virginia park were “bad.” But he added that the other side came “charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent.” 
 
 Aides had urged him for days to take the high ground, persuading him on Monday to read a brief statement condemning the neo-Nazi groups from the Diplomatic Room in the White House. But over the past day, back in his private New York residence for the first time since becoming president, Mr. Trump was alone, without his wife and young son, and consuming hours of television, with many on cable news telling him he had not done enough. ||||| President Donald Trump lashed out today over criticism of his initial statement about the Charlottesville, Virginia, violence over the weekend in a confrontational press conference at Trump Tower in New York. 
 
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 Asked about his immediate response Saturday, Trump quickly blamed both sides for the conflict, adding that there were "very fine people" among both the protesters — which included white supremacists and white nationalists — and the counterprotesters. 
 
 "I think there is blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there is blame on both sides," Trump said today. 
 
 "You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides," he added. 
 
 Trump defended his initial remarks about the violence, saying that it "was a fine statement" and that he wanted to make sure that he had enough facts before speaking again on the issue. Trump made a second statement on Monday from the White House, in which he condemned hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. 
 
 "Before I make a statement, I need the facts, so I don't want to rush into a statement. So making the statement when I made it was excellent," he said today. 
 
 Trump took issue with a reporter's characterization of some protesters as being part of the so-called alt-right — short for the "alternative right," which encompasses many far-right ideologies with racist, white nationalist and populist elements. 
 
 "When you say the alt-right, you define it. Go ahead. Define it for me," he said. 
 
 "What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right? Do they have any assemblage of guilt? What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do," he said. It's unclear what he meant by the "alt-left." 
 
 Trump said that he looked at images of protests held "the night before" the violence Saturday. Photos and videos of a demonstration on Friday, Aug. 11, showed people carrying lit tiki torches on a march through the University of Virginia campus. 
 
 He went on to question why the statue of Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee was being removed, which prompted the protest. 
 
 "You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name," he said. 
 
 "George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down — excuse me," Trump said, cutting off a reporter who tried to interject. "Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him. Good. Are we going to take down his statue? He was a major slave owner." 
 
 Asked whether he thinks the Lee statue should remain in the park, he said he thinks it's a local issue. 
 
 Trump was also asked about his view of the driver of a car that plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others. 
 
 "I think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family and this country. You can call it terrorism. You can call it murder. You can call it whatever you want. I would just call it as the fastest one to come up with a good verdict. There is a question. Is it murder? Is it terrorism? Then you get into legal semantics," Trump said. 
 
 At one point during the press conference, he said that he "didn't know David Duke was there [at the protest]." Trump's remarks appeared to please Duke, a former Louisiana lawmaker who was once an imperial wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. 
 
 Shortly after the press conference, Duke tweeted, "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," he wrote, apparently referring to the Black Lives Matter and the anti-fascist movements. ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201708/481/1155968404_5540813852001_5540808101001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump declares 'racism is evil' amid pressure over Charlottesville The president was widely criticized for waiting until Monday to specifically condemn the hate groups that marched over the weekend. 
 
 President Donald Trump on Monday denounced the white supremacist groups whose rally in Virginia on Saturday turned deadly, criticizing “racist violence” in remarks that were much more direct in their condemnation than his initial, widely panned response. 
 
 “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” Trump said in televised remarks Monday afternoon from the White House. “Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.” 
 
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 Trump's remarks in the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room lasted just longer than five minutes, and his comments on Saturday's episode in Charlottesville were preceded by a preamble in which the president touted his administration's economic successes. Nowhere in his remarks did he label Saturday's clash, which left one woman dead, an act of terrorism, a characterization others in his administration and other Republicans have used. 
 
 That the president waited until Monday to specifically condemn the hate groups that marched over the weekend had raised eyebrows and recalled multiple episodes from his 2016 campaign in which the president was forced to distance himself, often after a delay and under public pressure, from symbolism and language tied to white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups. On Monday, Trump did not respond to reporters' shouted questions as to why it had taken him two days to explicitly denounce white supremacy. 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions and newly installed FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed Trump on Monday before his statement on the clashes in Charlottesville. 
 
 Earlier in the day, administration officials rushed to defend Trump's first response to the weekend's deadly violence, insisting that he had already condemned the ideology of hate groups. Those groups, ostensibly gathered for a rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, clashed with counterprotesters. The violence peaked when a man drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people, authorities said. 
 
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 The president’s first comments came Saturday from his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he decried “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” A White House statement Sunday sought to clarify the president's position as condemning white supremacists, but the statement was attributed only to an unnamed White House official, stoking questions about why it was issued behind a cloak of anonymity. 
 
 Trump's initial statement that "many sides" were to blame struck critics as equating the actions of hate groups with those of counterprotesters. Vice President Mike Pence, however, told NBC that Trump was referring to past, unrelated protests in which there were attacks on law enforcement. 
 
 Sessions insisted there was no ambiguity in the president’s initial statement. 
 
 "He made a very strong statement that directly contradicted the ideology of hatred, violence, bigotry, racism and white supremacy," Sessions told NBC’s “Today” show Monday. "Those things must be condemned. They're totally unacceptable. ... He's been firm on this from the beginning. He is appalled by this." 
 
 It was unclear Monday why Trump finally decided to make additional remarks or whether it would stem the flow of withering bipartisan criticism. 
 
 Prominent Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wrote online after Trump's first statement, “We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.” 
 
 Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, addressed Trump directly on Twitter, writing: “Mr. President — we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.” 
 
 Michael Signer, Charlottesville’s Democratic mayor, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday that Trump’s remarks had left the president “on the sidelines” of a “country that really needs to progress and heal and tell the truth about a lot of chapters in our history.” Signer, who was among those urging Electoral College voters not to certify Trump’s 2016 victory, connected the violence in his city over the weekend to the president’s campaign. 
 
 “Look, I think some of this speaks for itself. We saw the campaign that they ran, we saw the folks they surround themselves, we saw what [former Ku Klux Klan leader] David Duke, you know, people like that say about the president,” Signer said. “I think that Charlottesville is going to be synonymous with the nation at long last turning the page on this horrific chapter in American politics where bigots and, you know, the fringe of the fringe were invited into the mainstream, out from the shadows where they belonged.” 
 
 Trump’s handling of the issue could even disrupt his policy agenda. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier announced via his company’s Twitter account Monday morning that he would resign from the president’s American Manufacturing Council. Frazier wrote that “our country’s strength stems from its diversity.” 
 
 “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” Frazier's statement said. “As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.” 
 
 Trump responded on Twitter by attacking Merck: “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” 
 
 Hours later, two other CEOs announced they were leaving the council. The first was Under Armour's Kevin Plank, who said in a company tweet, "There is no place for racism or discrimination in this world." 
 
 "I love our country & company," he added. "I am stepping down from the council to focus on inspiring & uniting through power of sport." 
 
 A short while later Intel's chief, Brian Krzanich, wrote in a company blog that he was resigning "to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues." 
 
 He concluded: "My request — my plea — to everyone involved in our political system is this: set scoring political points aside and focus on what is best for the nation as a whole. The current environment must change, or else our nation will become a shadow of what it once was and what it still can and should be." 
 
 Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
– President Trump doubled down on Saturday's widely criticized "many sides" statement during a press conference Tuesday at Trump Tower, claiming "there is blame on both sides" in regards to the fatal white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, the New York Times reports. Trump had tried to walk back his original statement on Monday, but on Tuesday he called it "excellent" and a "fine statement," according to USA Today. He said he didn't condemn white supremacists on Saturday "because I didn't know all the facts." "I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct," the president said. On Tuesday, Trump went ever further in his "many sides" argument, condemning the "alt-left" groups that were "very, very violent." He went on to say both sides—including the side that counts neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK as members—contain some "very fine people," ABC News reports. "Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me," Trump said. "Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch." He said many of the people in Charlottesville just didn't want to see a statue get torn down, pointing out that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. "This week, it is Robert E. Lee and this week, Stonewall Jackson," Trump said. "Is it George Washington next?" Splinter notes the press conference was originally supposed to be about infrastructure.