Trump Charlottesville Take 3

The more he speaks, the more I cringe. Trump let his freak flag fly at a press conference today, addressing again the murder in Charlottesville of Heather Heyer, who died when a white supremacist apparently purposefully gunned his car into the back of a group of people.

Want some examples? Here's why it took 48 hours to get his second statement out. 

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 don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts, and it's a very, very important process to me, and it's a very important statement, so I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. If you go back to — I brought it. I brought it. I brought it. As I said — 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. Now, here's the thing. Excuse me, excuse me. Take it nice and easy. Here's the thing. When I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts. This event just happened. In fact, a lot of the event didn't even happen yet, as we were speaking. This event just happened. Before I make a statement, I need the facts, so I don't want to rush into a statement.

So, making the statement when I made it was excellent. In fact, the young woman, who I hear is a fantastic young woman — and it was on NBC — her mother wrote me and said — through I guess Twitter, social media — the nicest things, and I very much appreciated that. I hear she was a fine, really actually an incredible young woman. But her mother on Twitter thanked me for what I said. And honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press would have said what I said was very nice. But unlike you and unlike — excuse me — unlike you and unlike the media, before I make a statement I like to know the facts.

Um... I don't even know where to start. Maybe birtherism? I'm pretty sure you still owe us the 'facts' on that one.  And the young woman who you hear is a fantastic young woman, a fine, really actually an incredible young woman? Her name is Heather Heyer. Say her name. Pick up the phone, have a conversation with her mother. 

Here's another, on whether the CEO of WalMart was correct that a critical opportunity was missed in helping bring the country together. 

Not at all. I think the country — look, you take a look. I've created over a million jobs since I'm president. The country is booming, the stock market is setting records. We have the highest employment numbers we've ever had in the history of our country. We're doing record business. We have the highest levels of enthusiasm. So, the head of WalMart, whom I know, who is a very nice guy, was making a political statement. I mean, I do it the same way. You know why? Because I want to make sure, when I make a statement that the statement is correct, and there was no way — there was no way of making a correct statement that early. I had to see the facts, unlike a lot of reporters — unlike a lot of reporters. I know, David Duke was there. I wanted to see the facts, and the facts as they started coming out were very well-stated. In fact, everybody said his statement was beautiful. If he would have made it sooner, that would have been good. I couldn't have made it sooner because I didn't know all of the facts. Frankly, people still don't know all of the facts. It was very important — excuse me, excuse me. It was very important to me to get the facts out and correctly, because if I would have made a fast statement — and the first statement was made without knowing much other than what we were seeing. The second statement was made with knowledge, with great knowledge. There's still things — excuse me, there's still things that people don't know. I want to make a statement with knowledge. I wanted to know the facts. Okay.

No, no, no, no -- seriously: you were asked if you missed a critical opportunity to bring the country together, and THAT was your answer? #WhatTheEverlovingSniff

How about throwing Steve Bannon under the bus, are you willing to do that? Sorry, that was the answer, not the question - the question was "do you still have confidence in Steve?"

Well, we'll see. Look, I like Mr. Bannon, he's 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, he's a good man. He is not a racist, I can tell you that. He's a good person, he actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But we'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon, but he's a good person and I think the press treats him frankly very unfairly.

Hey Steve, get Reince on the phone, maybe he can pick you up and give you a ride home? Unless, I drag you on a junket with me and kick you out of the big boy car like I did to him, that was fun.

Is the president concerned about race relations, are they better or worse since he took office? 

I think they have gotten better- or the same- I- look. They've been frayed for a long time, and you can ask President Obama about that because he'd make speeches about it. But, I believe that the fact that I brought in, it will be soon, millions of jobs — you see where companies are moving back into our country — I think that's going to have a tremendous positive impact on race relations. We have companies coming back into our country, we have two car companies that just announced, we have FoxConn in Wisconsin just announced. We have many companies, I say pouring back into the country. I think that's going to have a huge, positive impact on race relations. You know why? It's jobs. What people want now, they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay and, when they have that, you watch how race relations will be. 

I gotta tell you, I think people marching around giving Nazi salutes don't really give a good goddamn about jobs. Unless "Jew will not replace me" means "I can't wait to go work in a coal mine."

How about reaching out to Heather Heyer's family, have you done that yet?

No, I'll be reaching out. I'll be reaching out. 

When will you be reaching out?

I was very — I thought that the statement put out, the mother's statement, I thought was a beautiful statement. I must tell you, I was- it was something that I really appreciated. I thought it was terrific, and really under the- under the kind of stress that she's under and the heartache that she's under, I thought putting out that statement to me was really something I won't forget. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.

One more. When asked if he was going to go to Charlottesville, not for a golfing vacation or anything like that, but you know, to help heal the wounds and presidential stuff. 

I own a house in Charlottesville. Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville?  (Reporter: Where is it?)

Oh, boy, it's going to be- it's in Charlottesville, you'll see. (Reporter: Is it in the winery or something?)

It's a- it is the winery.

I mean, I know a lot about Charlottesville. Charlottesville is a great place that's been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. I own- I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States that's in Charlottesville.

Before you make a statement, you need to know the facts. You would not want to make a statement without knowing the facts. You still don't know the facts, and it's a very important process to me.