‘The president speaks for himself’: Rex Tillerson distances himself from Trump
Appearing to suggest that Donald Trump did not represent “the American people’s values” after the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Rex Tillerson said on Sunday “the president speaks for himself”.
The US secretary of state was responding to questions about Trump’s assertion that “many sides” were to blame when white supremacists and anti-racism protesters clashed in Virginia on 12 August.
One person died and many more were injured when a suspect who demonstrated with white nationalists at a so-called Unite the Right rally rammed his car into crowd of counter-protesters.
Days after an official White House statement attributed to Trump blamed the violence “on many sides”, Trump went further in a testy exchange with reporters.
“You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent,” Trump said. Both sides included “very bad people”, the president added, saying those gathered for the far-right rally, ostensibly to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, included many “fine people”.
The US secretary of state was responding to questions about Trump’s assertion that “many sides” were to blame when white supremacists and anti-racism protesters clashed in Virginia on 12 August. One person died and many more were injured when a suspect who demonstrated with white nationalists at a so-called Unite the Right rally rammed his car into crowd of counter-protesters. Days after an official White House statement attributed to Trump blamed the violence “on many sides”, Trump went further in a testy exchange with reporters. “You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent,” Trump said. Both sides included “very bad people”, the president added, saying those gathered for the far-right rally, ostensibly to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, included many “fine people”.