reporter: we asked that question repeatedly and got a response from a white house official essentially doubling down on what the president said. the statement from that official was along the lines of, the president condemned the hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all forms, and this official pointed out there was violence from the counter protestors and the protestors nap is true. there was an outbreak of violence with the demonstrators and counterdemonstrators, but this idea that all sides are responsible for the hatred and bigotry on display that is something that a lot of folks have taken issue with saying that the president is drawing, is equating the kkk and the neo-nazis and white sue prim 1i69 supremacists with the people out in the streets demonstrating that kind of hate. wolf? and the senator from colorado specifically called out the
justice, making this statement is very different than the president of the united states who has had this ongoing criticism of failing to take strong words or use strong words about the alt-right and white nationalist groups that have supported him. him not saying anything is very different. i think back to lyndon johnson who saw white extremists and police attack african-americans in march of 1965 marching for voting rights and he delivered a powerful speech to congress not only he said this is wrong but put himself on the side of the civil rights protesters. our contributor of the new yorker magazine, he said and i am quoting him, he said today is by far the most disgraceful day of donald trump s presidency. what is your reaction? what is your thought?
them what they are. white supremacist groups. our governor has done so and we re calling on every elected official around the country to condemn these actions and these white supremacy groups and let them know this will not be tolerated. you say 45, you mean president trump. what specifically, vice mayor, do you want to hear him say? i want him to condemn the white supremacy groups. i don t know if i can be any clearer than that. he came out way statement yesterday i thought was nowhere near where it should be talking about had these issues forever. water is wet. we know we ve had these issue as long time and we re working on that. we need him from the highest office of the land come out and condemn them. you have an individual like david duke, leader of the ku klux klan clowns, saying they are here to fulfill the drama from their president what more do you need to hear? he needs to denounce these
president in pointed words. tell view us what he s saying. reporter: play what senator guard had 20 say about this on state of the union this morning. this is not a time for vagaries, innuendo ar allow room to be read between the lines. this a is a time to lay blame. lay blame on bigotry, white supremacists and hatred. that needs to be said. this president has done an incredible job naming terrorism around the globe as evil. radical islamic terrorism. whether in europe or the middle east he has said and called it out time and time again and these president needs to do exactly that today. reporter: and you heard senator gardner say the president needs to come out and do that today. as i said, wolf, we have no news of any planned statement from the president. we haven t heard anything from the president about this or any other issue today, and i should point out gardner is not alone. one of the first who took to twitter yesterday. i believe we have that tweet
department had to clean up that phrase. the president is someone we have seen who does not want to correct himself, does not want to ever be in the wrong and sure as heck doesn t want tolisten to pundits. i don t anticipate him changing the rhetoric he uses which is a darn shame. i wished and i had hoped that he would think twice about a way in which he has responded to the anti-semitism among other things and racism that was implicit and explicit in charlottesville. you know you have to stop waiting and realize you move on and realize there is a moral vacuum in the white house. he does have a chance. there are tv crews, reporters there in new jersey right now if he wants to make a statement we ll have live coverage of that. guys, thanks very much. important conversation indeed. i want all our viewers to stay with us as breaking news