What did Trump say in his initial statement immediately after the Charlottesville car attack, and how did it differ from the later press availability transcript?
Executive summary
President Trump’s immediate statement in the hours after the August 12, 2017 Charlottesville car attack was a short, formal White House remark that condemned “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” and noted a Justice Department civil‑rights investigation into the deadly crash [1] [2]. Two days later, at a press availability, his remarks shifted to a more conversational, defensive tone that repeatedly emphasized “both sides,” suggested “very fine people on both sides,” and included personal asides that critics said undercut a forceful denunciation of white supremacists [3] [4].
1. The immediate statement: formal, institutional, and vague about perpetrators
Minutes to hours after the vehicle drove into counterprotesters in Charlottesville, the White House posted and broadcast a concise presidential statement that condemned “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” and announced that the Department of Justice had opened a civil‑rights investigation into the car attack that killed one person and wounded others, language delivered from a prepared text and reported by outlets including C‑SPAN and the White House archive [5] [2] [6]. FactCheck and contemporaneous coverage noted that the Saturday remarks used the phrase “on many sides” twice and did not explicitly name white supremacists, KKK or neo‑Nazis in that initial text, a point that quickly drew scrutiny [1].
2. The later press availability: conversational, equivocal, and focused on “both sides”
On Aug. 15, at a more free‑wheeling press availability, the president took reporters’ questions and repeatedly returned to the idea that there was “blame on both sides,” at one point saying there were “very fine people on both sides,” and defending his earlier decision to wait and “not rush” in making a statement [3] [4]. FactCheck and PBS reported that during that exchange he read portions of his earlier prepared statement aloud but added remarks that equated the culpability of counterprotesters and white‑supremacist demonstrators, and that he waffled when asked whether the car attack constituted domestic terrorism [1] [7].
3. Clear differences in tone, specificity, and delivery
The immediate statement was formal and institutionally framed—sounding like a prepared White House release that announced an investigation—whereas the press availability was improvisational, defensive and personalized, featuring off‑the‑cuff lines and justifications for why the initial statement had been measured; that tonal pivot made the later remarks read as less an unequivocal denouncement and more a continuing debate about culpability between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators [2] [4] [1]. Importantly, while the later appearances included a separate, more explicit Monday statement that did name the KKK and neo‑Nazis, the interim press availability is what crystallized public perceptions that the president was equating violent white supremacists with those who opposed them [8] [1].
4. Reception, political fallout and how different audiences heard the two messages
Political and corporate figures interpreted the contrast sharply: critics and some Republican officials said the initial “many sides” language and the subsequent “both sides” comments failed to single out white supremacists and thus sent mixed messages, prompting resignations from advisory councils and public rebuke, while white‑nationalist platforms celebrated what they saw as equivocation or sympathy, showing that both the phrasing and the later conversational tone carried discrete political consequences [9] [10] [11]. Media analyses emphasized that the initial formal wording left room for interpretation, but the press availability’s more casual phrasing and defenses made that interpretation stick in the public record [1] [7].
5. Bottom line and reporting limits
The factual record shows a short, prepared initial statement condemning “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” and announcing a DOJ probe (available in the White House archive and on C‑SPAN), followed two days later by a press availability in which the president repeatedly emphasized “both sides” and made remarks—such as “very fine people on both sides”—that many journalists and officials regarded as equivocating about white supremacist responsibility; this summary relies on contemporary transcripts and reporting from the White House archive, C‑SPAN, PolitiFact, FactCheck, PBS and major news outlets cited above [6] [5] [3] [1] [7]. If exact minute‑by‑minute audio/video of each line is sought, the original C‑SPAN clip and full press transcripts are the primary sources for verification [5] [12].