While big-name Californians haven’t hesitated to condemn the KKK, neo-Nazis and other white nationalist hate groups that sparked the deadly attack in Charlottesville, President Trump Tuesday reignited a weekend controversy by blaming the violence on both sides, including the “alt-left” and alt-right.

Republicans and Democrats had criticized Trump for saying Saturday that “many sides” were to blame for the confrontations without singling out or naming the KKK, neo-Nazis or other “alt-right” anti-minority, anti-semitic groups.

But after Trump did make a TV statement Monday naming those groups, he turned around Tuesday and said he thinks “there is blame on both sides.”

Leaders of the alt-right groups thanked Trump for what they saw as his support of their views and actions.

Ex-Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke was one of them.

On Wikipedia, David Duke is called “an American white nationalist, politician, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, convicted felon, and former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.”

Add to that: big fan of President Trump.

At a Trump Tower news conference Tuesday, Trump went back to his original “many sides” views on who was to blame for the Charlottesville tragedy.

“I think there is blame on both sides,” Trump said. “What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, the alt-right, do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact they came charging with clubs in hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do.”

Within minutes, former congressman Duke tweeted: “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa.”

Trump went on: “You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. nobody wants to say it, but I will say it right now.”

He told the press: “The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement.”

Even before Trump’s Tuesday statements, California politicians made clear their outrage over the KKK and neo-Nazi actions. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein both made public statements naming those groups. Ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a $100,000 donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center that fights hate groups, oversees a tolerance museum and originally tracked down real-life Nazis from World War II.

Social media posts immediately went up from people outraged over Trump’s comments and Duke’s support.

The instant reaction:

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