This is the cbs evening news. Mason good evening. Im Anthony Mason. There was no script this time, no prepared statement. President trump said today what he really believes happened in charlottesville. Flashing anger at times, the president said both sides the White Supremacists and the counterprotesters are to blame for the violence that left one person dead and 35 injured. We have never seen a president ial News Conference quite like this one at trump tower this afternoon. White house correspondent Margaret Brennan was there. Margaret. Reporter President Trump unloaded his pruistration and defended his decision to wait two days before denouncing the hate groups behind that rally. He called it a horrible, horrible day. I didnt wait long. I wanted to make sure unlike most politicians that what i said was correct, not make a quick statement. The statement i made on saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement. But you dont make statements that direct unless you know the fact. It takes a little while to get the facts. If you go back to my in fact, i brought it. I brought it. I brought it. Reporter mr. President as i said on remember this, saturday we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in america. And then i went on from there. Reporter the president then doubled down on his assertion from saturday that both sides were to blame for the violence. You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but ill say it right now. You had a group you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent. Those people, all of those people excuse me. Ive condemned neonazis. Ive condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neonazis, believe me. Not all of those people were White Supremacists by any stretch. White nationalists those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, robert e. Lee. So excuse me. And you take a look at some of the groups, and you see and you know it, if you were honest reporters which in many cases youre not but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e. Lee. So this week its robert e. Lee. I notice that jacques i stonewan is coming down. I wonder is it George Washington the next week, and Thomas Jefferson the week after . You really do have to ask yourself where does it stop. Reporter he condemned the driver who ran his car into counterprotesters. Well, i think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family, and his country. And that is you can call it terrorism. You can call it murder. You can call it whatever you want. The driver of the car is a murderer, and what he did was a horrible, hosh, inexcuse exoouzable thing. Reporter have you spoken to the family of the victim of the car no, ill be reaching out. Aye be reaching out. Reporter when will you be reaching out . I was very i thought that the statement put out the mothers statement i thought was a beautiful statement. I must tell you, it was something that i really appreciated. I thought it was terrific. And, really, under the kind of stress that shes under and the heartache that shes under, i thought putting out that statement, to me, was really something i wont forget. Reporter the mother of heather heyer, who was killed in saturdays attack, thanked mr. Trump for denouncing, those who promote violence and hatred. But the president s frustration broke through when we asked about republican senator john mccains call for him to denounce attacks by the altright on white house staff. Senator mccain reporter to the altright . You mean the one who voted against obamacare. Reporter and he said you mean senator mccain who voted against us Getting Good Health Care . Reporter senator mccain said that the altright is behind these attacks, and he linked that same group to those who perpetrated the attack in charlottesville. Well, i dont know i cant tell you. Im sure senator mccain must know what hes talking about. But when you say the altright, define altright to me. You define it. Define it for me. Lets go. Reporter senator macien defined them as the same group what about the altleft that came charging excuse me. What about the altleft that came charging as, as you say, the altright . Do they have any semblance of guilt . Let me ask you this what about the fact that came charging that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs . Do they have any problem . I think they do. Reporter are you putting what youre calling the altleft and White Supremacists on the same moral plane . Im not putting anybody on a moral plane. What im saying is this you had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs, any it was vicious, and it was hocialg, and it was a hork thing to watch. But there is another side. There was a group on this side you can tall them the left. Youve just called them the left that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but thats the way it is. Reporter when asked whether Senior Adviser steve bannon, who has links to the altright, will remain in his administration, the president hedged. Well, well see. Look, look, i like mr. Bannon. Hes a friend of mine. But mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors, and i won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that. And i like him. Hes a good man. He is not a racist. I can tell that you. Hes a good person. He actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But well see what happens with mr. Bannon. But hes a good person, and i think the press treats him, frankly, very unfairly. Reporter and you may be able to hear some of the protesters outside of trump tower where we are now. Anthony, there was a very telling moment during this press conference when chief of staff john kelly, who was just standing off to the sidelines, was just looking down at his shoes during all of this. You know, hes been charged with establishing command and control of white house staff. The limits of his ability to keep the president on message were laid bare today. Mason Margaret Brennan with an extraordinary day at trump tower. Thank you, margaret. As soon as the president finished speaking, social media exploded. Former k. K. K. Leader david duke wrote, thank you mpresident , for your honesty and courage to tell the truth. Others were not tow explimentary. Republican House Speaker paul ryan tweeted, White Supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. Florida republican senator marco rubio said, you cant allow White Supremacists to share only part of the blame. California democratic senator Kamala Harris wrote, ive said it all before, and ill say it again there are not many sides to this. The president said there was blame and violence on both sides. We wanted to get a fact check on what happened in charlottesville, so were calling on our reporter paula reid who was on the scene for cbs news on saturday. How well armed were both sides, paula . Reporter pretty much every white supremacist demonstrator they saw had some sort of weapon, either a helmet, a shield, a firearm, a baton. As for the counterprotesters, i would say most of them were unarmed. Many of them were members of the clergy or they were students. Now, there were certainly some people who were there as counterdemonstrators who were there to cause trouble, but overwhelmingly, the counterprotesters were unarmed. They were also, the counterprotesters, the only ones i saw administering medical aid to people who had chemical agents in their eyes and in their mouths. Mason and did you get any sense of where most of the tension was really coming from on the scene . Reporter you have torm that Emancipation Park where the statue of robert e. Lee is, is raised above the street. Its several feet, several steps above the road. So the White Supremacists had the park, and were seeing a lot of objects coming down from the park into the streets where most of the counterdemonstrators were. And its clear, for every one counterdemonstrator flag you could see, there were 10 to 15 confederate or white supremacist flags. Mason the rally itself was scheduled for saturday, but there was a a lot of people arrived friday night carrying torches. What was the significance of that, do you think, paula . Reporter police seemed caught off guard from the start. You had hundreds of people marching through the university of virginia campus chanting white supremacist slogans and carrying tiki torches. And it seems that that almost helped to embolden them, which is part of why they got to the really several hours early and were already pretty amped up. Mason paula reid, thank you very much. Lets turn now to john dickerson, our chief washington correspondent and stairveggor of face the nation. John, just an extraordinary day, and i was particularly struck by the fact that the president was carrying his saturday speech in his pocket, which suggested that he he had something he wanted to say today. Reporter yes. He he was in the middle of making continuing an argument. He seemed more interested in assigning blame in his remarks to those on the left and ensuring that there was this equivalent understanding of what took place than he was interested in showing moral disgust that a president should show towards neonazi protesters who represent beliefs that are entirely at odds with the United States, the country that he is the leader of. And that repeated and made worse his moral failure from saturday. President s are supposed to rush into these moments and unify americans. But the president , by bringing that statement and continuing to try to defend himself, was continuing an argument and saying both sides were to blame. He wanted to make sure he was right about the details, but then when he characterized the protesters, he totally overlooked the nazi slogans and flags and salutes. Mason john, in the end, what do you make of what happened today in terms of how it will affect the president . Reporter well, this happens in a context. The president won office and was herl added by many of his supporters by speaking bluntly, by speak truths, by not bothering with the niceties, so his reluctsance to do that here, to speak the essential truth about the neonazi protesters who were chanting those nazi slogans, that is a failing that he has now repeated twice. He had a moment like this during the primaries that rattled republican leaders. Republican leaders will now have to distance themselves from the president , and the and the question is how they get back together again. Mason john dickerson, thank you very much. Joining us now is dr. Calvin butts. Hes president of the State University of new york at old west bury, and pastor of new yorks abyssinian baptist church. Thank you for being with us. The president said yesterday that racist is evil. Have his remarks today effectively undercut that . I think so. Everyone believes that hes trying to avoid identifying the hatred and the level of vitriole in the country today. And his statements today in terms of trying to spread the blame, so to speak, did not realize ensure americans, most of them and i would encourage the president to Pay Attention to the polls that we should not be living in fear. Everyone is afraid today. Mason is it possible to keep the country united with this kind of rhetoric . No, and thats the problem. Coming from the bully pulpit of the white house, you have to speak to the sensibilities of this nation. Were not going to fight the civil war again, and were not going to stand for the kind of hatred that we see tearing this country apart. And the president needs to tone it down. He needs to demonstrate that he can lead this nation. Its a difficult job, but we are a good people, and weve come a long way, and we cannot let a man like him take us back. Mason what is a man like him . What do you mean . Someone who is a bully. Someone who does not listen to the deep reservoir of intelligence of the men and women of the United States government. Mason if you could Say Something directly to the president today, or have him Say Something, what would that be . It would be that there is domestic terrorism in the United States of america, and the president of the United States does not tolerate it, and say it from his heart. I think he needs to sit back and take a look at what is america truly today . And it is a diverse nation thats, one, epluribuses some i wonder if he knows what that means. And hes segregating the population with this rhetoric. Mason there are, in fact, hundreds of hate groups in this country. Theyre members living largely in the shadows. More now from jim axelrod. Reporter who makes up americas hate groups . Ask Christian Piccolini. Thats him nearly 25 years ago, a leader in the skinhead movement. Who are the people who make up the rank and file of the White Supremacist Movement . You know, jim, its the average american. Its our mechanics. Its our dentists. Its our teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses. And, unfortunately, thats the way its turned into in the last 30 years. Reporter born and raised in working class chicago, he joined his first white power gang at 14 before quitting eight years later and starting a nonprofit to combat hate. This notion that White Supremacists are all around us, its a very scary picture you paint. It is. Unfortunately, its a reality. Reporter the Southern Poverty Law Center counts more than 900 active hate groups in the u. S. , a number thats growing. This is a movement that is really fueled at this moment by a lot of young, angry white men. Reporter but heidi beirich, who tracks hate groups for the s. P. L. C. , agrees with the former skinhead picciolini. It is absolutely false to think that people in the White Supremacist Movement are really poor People Living in trailer parks with no education. Reporter Christian Piccolini takes it further, saying no one should be surprised that support for President Trump from White Supremacists in charlottesville last weekend. Do you feel White Supremacists look at donald trump and feel affirmed . Absolutely, 100 . You know, the antiimgrant, antirefugee talk, and the idea to put america first, those are all things that we talked about 30 years ago, and it resonates just as deeply with the people who are in this movement. Reporter this past january, the Obama Administration gave picciolinis group 400,000 to continue its work battling hate groups. Then in june, the Trump Administration told them the grant, anthony, had been canceled. Mason jim axelrod. Thank you, jim. Six executives have now resigned in protest from the president s 28member manufacturing council. The president lashed out at them. Heres julianna goldman. Theyre not taking their job seriously as it pertains to this country. Reporter it was the third attack since the weekend on c. E. O. S the president had hand picked as outside economic advisers. Its an honor to be here today. Reporter like intel c. E. O. Brian krzanich who stood next to President Trump in february and praised his tax policies. After the president s response to the violence in charlottesville, krzanich and the leaders of under armour, merck, and the alliance for American Manufacturing stepped down. Mr. Trump lashed out in a tweet, for every c. E. O. That drops out of the manufacturing council, i have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. I especially want to thank ken frazier. Reporter mercks ken frazier, one of the countrys most prominent black business leaders, was the first to distance himself sunday saying he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism. Mr. Trump took two days to explicitly condemn the White Supremacists in charlottesville, but within an hour of his resignation, frazier was in the president s twitter line of fire. While fraziers move put pressure on his corporate colleagues, for the most part theyre staying put. James bailey air, professor at George Washington universitys business school, says speak out risks the president exacting a personal vendetta. Taking on the president of the United States for a publicly traded company is not small ball. Yes. It was difficult to take on the president of the United States. The risks are high. But the the payoff might be quite high as well. Reporter late today, richard trumpico, president of the aflcio also stepped down writing, i cannot sit on a council for a president of bigotry. They sit on various Advisory Boards including the c. E. O. Of Lockheed Martin and walmart. Mason julianna goldman, mason julianna goldman, thank you, jewel anna. 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We are a city that believes in free speech, but we will not tolerate accept theiments to violence. We will not tolerate threatening behavior. We will not have it. Reporter for the second time this year, the Holocaust Memorial here in boston was vandalized late last night. As for the socalled free speech rally, anthony, it is scheduled to go on as planned this weekend right here inside the boston common. Mason demarco morgan, thanks. And up next, why a black man in the south is painting confederate flags. [woman] so youre saying you didnt eat this ice cream . [man] baby, i swear on my lucky shirt. I ate it. [burke] frightning bolt. Seen it. Covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum with some big news about type 2 diabetes. You have type 2 diabetes, right . Yes. So let me ask you this. How does diabetes affect your heart . It doesnt, does it . Actually, it does. 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Thats cool. Needles, or downtime . Coolsculpting is the only fdacleared noninvasive thats coolsculpting. Trvisit coolsculpting. Com today frand register for a chance to me. Mason at confederate flags are being prmoved all over america, a south is adding them to his paintings. Strassmann. Reporter leo twiggs, a son of the as a series of crossings. Thats why the now83yearold artist has spent four decades painting a the confederate flag, hundreds of them. Pi recurring symbol . Because i think the south isu know. Weve got the southern got segregation. And they seem at oppositeds. Reporter that flag resurfaced in charlottesvillehe weekend. As a boy in south carolina, twiggs watched as they paraded through his home town. Segregation marched h you coue white schools. I went toat t time, the state would pay your way to anothe. Reporter paid you to go away. Paid me to go away. Reporter in 1970, he black t to earn a doctor of arts at the twiggs became one of the souths most acclaimed paintings of thig represent his journey and the souths. I make it a tattered and wore in a museum. And yet, we see it flying aroun. Reporter alive and present. Li for dylann roof. After he massacred nine worshipers at lowed that flag at the state capitol. It faded from view, much painti. I call it our finest but emanuel is not an isolated incident. It is part of the african is th. I hope these flags create an atmosphere conversation. Reporter what can i do . What can iille reflected the message of leo twiggs, something america has yet to cross news, charleston. Mason and thats im Anthony Mason in new york. Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching. Good night. Action. Broken bones . The new Mission Impossible movie shut down. New details about tom gone wrong. Then john mayer in tears over katy perry . I ran into my ex. His revealing new song that gets him so emotional he cant even sing it. I would cry. Then remember this . Tiger woods toxicology report revealed the five drugs found in his system. Plus inside Cindy Crawfords malibu mansion and her tips for the perfect selfie. The this is us cast spills secret, and were kicking it with the sexy 50yearold. Really high. I can do it all. Now for august 15, 2017, this is entertainment tonight