If you're explaining, you're losing.

So we're....

**looks at calendar**

.....nearly 7 months into the President Donald Trump administration, yet we still have not seen that "presidential pivot" he promised us. 

The news conference the President conducted at Trump Tower on Tuesday underscored the fact there has been no (and will likely be no) "pivot." Much of the line of questioning concerned Trump not being willing to call out the alt right, neo nazis, KKK, etc. after their demonstration Saturday in Charlottesville, VA. I'll come back to that.

In his initial statement addressing the "Unite the Right" rally Saturday, Trump went with the "both sides are bad" argument (left wing counter protest groups showed up, resulting in utter chaos). That's not to say he was factually incorrect in conveying that line of thinking. But the fact that the "white supremacist" groups gravitated towards Trump's campaign message should have prompted Trump himself to immediately disavow them the millisecond they hit the Charlottesville streets. The fact he was hesitant to condemn the rally organizers only stoked concern that Trump was placating them. 

Two days later, Trump did indeed call out the neo nazis and white supremacists by name. Sure, it was utterly stupefying that he had to be browbeaten into saying what should have been said at the outset. Nevertheless, the right thing was finally done.

Then came Tuesday. 

Trump was asked why he waited so long to condemn neo-Nazis and white supremacists by name after the Charlottesville events. Trump responded:

I didn’t wait long. 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. 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 make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. 

Even the most ardent, dyed in the wool Trump supporters have to chuckle at that one. Trump has never been one to deliberate over any answer to any line of questioning. This is a man who literally says what's on his mind regardless if the statement is factual or coherent. Also, what's with this business that he didn't "know the facts?!?!?!" What else is there to know except that the rally organizers were WHITE SUPREMACISTS?!?!?!? Any initial statement needed to be little more than an acknowledgment of repugnant people's First Amendment rights while also pointing out their beliefs are disgusting and have no place in America today. Heck, even not knowing any facts about who initiated the violence didn't mean the President couldn't address it at all. A simple statement indicating that too has no place in a civilized society, regardless of who instigated it.

I said earlier this week that it's highly unlikely that any "white supremacist" movement can generate the kind of momentum needed to be a legitimate force in America. Those people staying in the shadows can be further assured, however, if the supposed leader of the free world unconditionally condemns their existence.

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