Both sides to blame in Virginia - Trump

When the president on Saturday said there were "many sides" to blame, he meant it.

If Donald Trump's initial handling of the fallout from Charlottesville started a political fire, on Tuesday the president poured on a bucket of kerosene and danced around the flames.

"When you say alt-right..." Mr Trump said in an exchange with a reporter, using a term for right-wing groups.

"Okay, what about the alt-left that came charging at... the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact that they came charging... with clubs in their hands?"

Right-wing groups had been protesting against the removal of a statue of General Robert E Lee who commanded the pro-slavery Confederate forces during the American Civil War.

Media captionPhotojournalist Ryan M Kelly was covering the protest when the car ploughed into the crowd

Speaking at the White House on Monday, the US president had said that the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists were "repugnant" to everything Americans held dear.

But at the bad-tempered press conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday, Mr Trump said that those defending the statue had also included "many fine people".

He asked whether statues of former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson should also be torn down, because they had been slave-owners.

Media captionMarissa Blair, friend of Heather Heyer: "It was an act of terror"

Mr Trump's remarks were welcomed by David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who tweeted: "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa."

But others strongly condemned the comments.

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