Trump
dedicated around half an hour of his 78-minute speech to attacking the
"sick people" in the news media, before turning his fire on his own side
(AFP)
President Donald Trump on Tuesday mounted an
aggressive defense of his response to a deadly far-right march in
Virginia, using a rally speech to condemn "dishonest" media coverage of
his widely criticized remarks.
Trump faced bipartisan outrage after blaming "many sides" for violence at the rally in Charlottesville, in which one anti-fascist protester was killed.
Re-reading
his statements that followed the clashes, he railed at reporters at the
rally in Phoenix, Arizona, for misrepresenting his remarks -- but
omitted the equivocation that had sparked the backlash in the first
place.
"The very dishonest media... and I
mean truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media, they make
up stories. They have no sources in many cases. They say 'a source says'
-- there is no such thing," he said.
"But
they don't report the facts. Just like they don't want to report that I
spoke out forcefully against hatred, bigotry and violence and strongly
condemned the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists and the KKK."
Trump
dedicated about half an hour of his 78-minute speech to attacking the
"sick people" in the news media, before turning his fire on his own
side.
The speech was cheered raucously by
supporters inside the conference center, though thousands of anti-Trump
protesters, who had lined up under a blistering sun in Phoenix hours
before Trump's arrival, later clashed with police outside the venue.
Police deployed tear gas to disperse them, according to AFP reporters at the scene.
Jonathan
Howard, a spokesman for the city's police force, said that five arrests
had been made and that protesters had thrown rocks, bottles and tear
gas at police.
Shot across the bow
Speculation had been building that Trump
would use the rally to formally endorse a challenger to Arizona Senator
Jeff Flake, a moderate incumbent, in a shot across the bow of skeptical
Republicans.
He mocked both Flake and fellow Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, implying that McCain had sabotaged Republican healthcare reforms, but elaborately avoided mentioning either by name.
Veering
off script, Trump shied away from issuing a pardon for Joe Arpaio -- a
former sheriff in Arizona who was convicted of wilfully violating a
court order to stop targeting Hispanics in immigration roundups.
But
he gave strong hints that he was preparing a future pardon, saying: "I
think he's going to be just fine, okay? I won't do it tonight because I
don't want to cause any controversy."
Trump
voiced optimism over improvements in relations with North Korea
following an escalation in aggressive rhetoric on both sides over
Pyongyang's nuclear program.
"I respect
the fact that he is starting to respect us. And maybe -- probably not,
but maybe -- something positive can come about," Trump said of North
Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, though the president repeated his opinion
that he had not gone far enough in his condemnation of Kim.
Jonathan
Howard, a spokesman for the Phoenix police force, said protesters had
thrown rocks, bottles and tear gas at police, resulting in five arrests
(AFP)
The freewheeling speech left some critics
dumbfounded, with former national intelligence director James Clapper
questioning Trump's fitness to lead and his access to the country's
nuclear codes.
"I really question his
ability to be -- his fitness to be -- in this office, and I also am
beginning to wonder about his motivation for it," he told CNN television
early Wednesday, adding that he found parts of Trump's rhetoric
"downright scary and disturbing."
"In a
fit of pique he decides to do something about Kim Jong-Un, there's
actually very little to stop him," Clapper said. "The whole system is
built to ensure rapid response if necessary. So there's very little in
the way of controls over exercising a nuclear option, which is pretty
damn scary."
Trump's speech came at the
end of a trip to Arizona that the White House hopes will re-energize
core supporters who are cooling to his crisis-riddled presidency, and
build momentum for a controversial border wall.
The
president began his day in Yuma, touring a US Border Patrol operations
base, where he met with border agents. He then traveled to Phoenix for
the campaign-style rally in the evening, introduced to the crowd by Vice
President Mike Pence.
His visit to the
Republican state aimed to tout the benefits of a border fence with
Mexico, turn up the heat on reluctant allies and demonstrate the
president's determination to realize a central campaign pledge.
Trump had insisted that Mexico would pay for the wall, estimated to cost about $22 billion.
Having failed in that bid, he has turned to equally reticent Republicans in Congress to get US funding.
But
with his plan running into political quicksand, Trump is trying to
generate public pressure on reluctant lawmakers to support him.
In
Phoenix, Trump told the rally crowd his message for "obstructionist"
Democrats was that he was building the wall "if we have to close down
our government."
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