Photo: Former US presidents George W Bush and his father George HW Bush said America must "reject racial bigotry". (Reuters: Larry Downing)

Donald Trump under fire at home and abroad over 'terrible' Charlottesville comments

17 Aug 2017,

Several leading members of Donald Trump's Republican Party and key ally Britain have sharply rebuked the United States President after he insisted that white nationalists and protesters opposed to them were both to blame for deadly violence in the Virginia city of Charlottesville over the weekend.

Mr Trump's remarks yesterday, a more vehement reprisal of what had been widely seen as his inadequate initial response to the bloodshed around a white nationalist rally, reignited a storm of criticism and strained ties with his own party.

Republican former presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush were among those from Mr Trump's own party to speak out after the President's comments.

"America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms," they said in a joint statement.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement that did not mention Mr Trump by name but said "messages of hate and bigotry" from white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups should not be welcome anywhere in the US.

"We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-Nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms," he said.

"We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head."

Mr Trump last week lambasted Senator McConnell for the Senate's failure to pass healthcare legislation backed by the President, and did not dismiss the idea of Senator McConnell stepping down.

In his comments at a heated news conference in New York yesterday, Mr Trump said "there is blame on both sides" of the violence in Charlottesville, and that there were "very fine people" on both sides.

Ohio Governor John Kasich said there was no moral equivalency between the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and anybody else.

"This is terrible. The President of the United States needs to condemn these kind of hate groups," Mr Kasich said on NBC's Today show.

Failure to do so gave such organisations a sense of victory and licence to hold more events elsewhere, said Mr Kasich, one of Mr Trump's rivals for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election.

Ohio 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr, who was said to have harboured Nazi sympathies, was charged with murder after the car he was driving ploughed into counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others.

Ms Heyer was being remembered today at a memorial service in Charlottesville.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham, long a critic of the President, took direct aim, saying in a statement aimed at Mr Trump: "Your words are dividing Americans, not healing them."

Other Republicans to criticise Mr Trump's remarks included former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and senator Marco Rubio, also a Trump rival in the 2016 campaign.