RUSH: Here’s President Trump with his statement. Let’s join it and listen and hear what he’s got to say.

THE PRESIDENT: We are renegotiating trade deals and making them good for the American worker — and it’s about time. Our economy is now strong. The stock market continues to hit record highs, unemployment is at a 16-year low, and businesses are more optimistic than ever before. Companies are moving back to the United States and bringing many thousands of jobs with them. We have already created over one million jobs since I took office.

We will be discussing economic issues in greater detail later this afternoon, but based on the events that took place over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, I would like to provide the nation with an update on the ongoing federal response to the horrific attack and violence that was witnessed by everyone. I just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others.

To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered. As I said on Saturday: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in America. And, as I have said many times before: No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same Almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry, and violence.

We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans. Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans. We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator, we are equal under the law, and we are equal under our Constitution.

Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America. Two days ago, a young American woman, Heather Heyer, was tragically killed. Her death fills us with grief, and we send her family our thoughts, our prayers, and our love. We also mourn the two Virginia state troopers who died in service to their community, their commonwealth, and their country. Troopers Jay Cullen and Berke Bates exemplify the very best of America, and our hearts go out to their families, their friends, and every member of American law enforcement.

These three fallen Americans embody the goodness and decency of our nation. In times such as these, America has always shown its true character, responding to hate with love, division with unity, and violence with an unwavering resolve for justice. As a candidate, I promised to restore law and order to our country, and our federal law enforcement agencies are following through on that pledge.

We will spare no resource in fighting so that every American child can grow up free from violence and fear. We will defend and protect the sacred rights of all Americans and we will work together so that every citizen in this blessed land is free to follow their dreams in their hearts and to express the love and joy in their souls. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you very much.

RUSH: Okay. That should fix it. That should fix it. That should shut the media up. There should be no more talk about. It He just condemned them, he just skinned the skinheads and the neo-Nazis and the white supremacists. Done. It’s over, right? Okay, good, we can move on.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. So what’d you think of the president’s statement? Let me weigh in. I thought was exceptionally smart to lead off with the good news, the economic good news. I know it’s gonna be ripped, it’s gonna be panned, it’s gonna be said to be trite and superficial and defensive, but I think any time you can remind people that things are going great and things are looking better and that the whole concept of opportunity still exists in the United States, do it.

It’s never not time to be positive. There is good that happens. Sometimes you have to search for it, but there’s good in everything that happens. Then the condemnation by name of the Klan and the Nazis. Now, that should be it. Everybody said the president didn’t do it right. He can’t condemn both sides, he’s gotta condemn one side. Okay, he condemned one side in that statement. It should be over.

I’m gonna tell you this. It isn’t gonna be over. This is not gonna stop, the haranguing. And what does that mean? It means even though the president gave these groups that have been bellyaching the exact words they want to hear, they’re not going to stop, which means they’re actually after something else. And whatever it is, it isn’t peace, and it isn’t justice, and it isn’t freedom, and it isn’t tolerance in America. And they’re going to continue because their objective is to totally turn things upside down. They’re not interested in resolutions.

You know, both of these groups, both sides of this, you’ve got fringe leftists. And folks, I have a problem calling these people in the KKK white supremacists. I don’t think they’re right-wing at all. I know that Nazis are left-wing socialists! That’s the definition of the word, the Socialist Party, the Nazis, they’re left-wing. It’s why we did a little parody here at the beginning showing the things they have in common. And most of these people historically, the Klan were all Democrats. All of these statues of Civil War heroes, they’re all Democrats.

So the idea that we have a fringe bunch of right-wingers and a fringe bunch of left-wingers, I don’t accept that, but we do have a bunch of people out on the fringe, and for whatever reason, they don’t believe the Constitution applies to ’em. They don’t believe they have equality. They don’t believe they’ve got opportunity. They’ve been taught, they’ve been inculcated, they’ve been propagandized with the idea that no matter what they’re never going to be on a level playing field.

And on the other side of this where you have the Nazis and the white supremacists, they’re told every day that they’ve benefit from white privilege. That’s the latest rage on campus, white privilege, understanding your whiteness, understanding the problem. These people can’t even find jobs, for crying out loud, and they’re being told they’re benefiting from white privilege, so they’re ticked off. And there are people benefiting from both sides of this being ticked off. Find them. Find who benefits here. Financially, politically, however it happens, somebody is benefiting, somebody wants these kinds of things to happen.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Sean in Clay Center, Kansas. Get the question in quickly because I want to be able to answer it. How are you doing?

CALLER: I’m doing good.

RUSH: Good.

CALLER: I’m doing good. My question is, why are people complaining so much about what Trump is or isn’t saying about South Carolina and what’s going on in the South, but nothing was negatively said about Obama and what happened with Trayvon Martin and what he was saying about how it could have been his son and ignoring our nation’s history and just erasing it?

RUSH: Well, that’s the thing, Trump didn’t not say anything. Trump condemned everybody in this. That’s the whole thing here. He condemned everybody. He condemned both sides, all sides. And he has not had any of these extreme factions to the White House to honor them, like Obama has. Black Lives Matter, The New Black Panther party, which they refused to prosecute for Election Day thuggery in Philadelphia.

The reason they’re mad at Trump for what he said is they want to tie Trump to the so-called Alt-Right. They want Trump to say things that will allow them to say that the Nazis and the white supremacists are his base. And that’s what he didn’t give them in the first statement. This is nothing more than the latest attempt to get Trump, and it’s manufactured out of clean, clear air.