On Thursday, President Donald Trump stunned observers by returning to his controversial stance on the violence in Charlottesville, VA that killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and insisting that blame for the melee falls on both right-wing agitators and anti-racist protesters.
On CNN, conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham said, "He wants to be right and he's not good at laying things to rest."
It wasn't even the most awful thing he said, said Ham, "The most egregious things he said was that there were some fine people at the white supremacist rally."
Anchor Jake Tapper said nobody expected Trump to have an overnight epiphany about race issues, even after meeting with black South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott.
"Yeah an epiphany," said former advisor to ex-President Barack Obama Stephanie Cutter, chuckling. "An epiphany about how bad white supremacy is? An epiphany about the long history in this country about racism? It's a pretty pathetic day when we're talking about a president needing an epiphany on those subjects."
"I appreciate Sen. Scott going in there and trying to educate the president, but I think Mary Katharine is right, he is who he is," Cutter said. "This is what he believes. Nothing's going to change that. No matter how much this White House tries to spin a story otherwise."
Watch the video, embedded below:
'Pretty pathetic': Ex-Obama advisor slams Trump... by sarahburris
