White House scrambles to explain Trump's response to clashes

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — The White House scrambled Sunday to elaborate on President Donald Trump's response to deadly, race-fueled clashes in Charlottesville, Va., as he came under bipartisan scolding for not clearly condemning white supremacists and other hate groups immediately after the altercations.

As the chorus of criticism grew, White Houses aides were dispatched to the morning news shows, yet they struggled at times to explain the president's position. A new White House statement on Sunday explicitly denounced the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, but it was attributed to an unnamed spokesperson and not the president himself. Vice President Mike Pence, traveling in South America, condemned "these dangerous fringe groups" and said they "have no place in American public life and in the American debate."

http://www.startribune.com/trump-many-sides-to-blame-for-violent-clashes-in-virginia/440122333/