WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday repeated his controversial remarks that there was "blame on both sides" in the deadly white supremacist demonstrations in August.
The remarks came only one day after Trump met with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the lone African-American Senate Republican who publicly criticized Trump's position on the Charlottesville incident for giving comfort to white supremacists and the KKK.
"We had a great talk yesterday," Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked about his meeting with Scott.
"I think especially in light of the advent of Antifa, if you look at what's going on there, you know, you have some pretty bad dudes on the other side," Trump said. "And essentially that's what I said."
Antifa is an anti-fascist protest movement that sometimes resorts to violent measures to fight neo-Nazis and white supremacists, which has attracted a lot of attention in the wake of the Charlottesville violence that led to one death and dozens of injuries on Aug. 12.
White supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK took to the street on that day in the historic college town of Charlottesville in protest against a city's decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.
A 32-year-old anti-racism protester was killed and many others were wounded after a Nazi-sympathizer drove a car into a crowd but Trump first condemned the violence "on many sides", which drew bipartisan criticism.
In his latest comments over the incident on Thursday, Trump indicated that he had been right all along.
"Now because of what's happened since then with Antifa, you look at really what's happened since Charlottesville, a lot of people are saying and people have actually written, 'Gee, Trump might have a point.'" Trump said. "I said, 'you've got some very bad people on the other side also,' which is true."
Scott lashed out at Trump's rhetoric in the aftermath of the deadly clashes, saying the president had compromised his "moral authority".
When asked about his version of the meeting with Trump on Wednesday, Scott said he didn't go in there to "change who he was."
"I wanted to inform and educate a different perspective," he said. "I think we accomplished that and to assume that immediately thereafter he's going to have an epiphany is just unrealistic."
Scott's office issued a statement after Trump renewed his position on the Charlottesville violence, saying "Rome wasn't built in a day and to expect the president's rhetoric to change based on one 30-minute meeting is unrealistic."
"Antifa is bad and should be condemned, yes, but the KKK has been killing and tormenting black Americans for centuries," the statement read. "There is no realistic comparison. Period."
