Trump's Charlottesville Press Conference Transcript 2.1

So this is part of the Trump's Saturday Statement subroutine.
Here's the video of Trump's Saturday statement.
Two points:
First, with respect to this crucial part of the Saturday statement (starting at 1:00):

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. On many sides.

When he reads it on Saturday, here's how he reads it:

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry..........and violence...on many sides. On many sides.

I've tried to accurately represent his pauses, which, I think, made my interpretation plausible. That interpretation was that he was saying that the violence was on many sides, not the hatred, bigotry and violence. I'm not trying to argue that that interpretation is correct, I'm merely arguing that it was understandable / not crazy.

   But here's the more important point about the Saturday statement: watching the entire thing, it's honestly a little bit difficult for me to believe that people think it leaves any wiggle room for white supremacists. Now, since even white supremacists say that it does, I'm obviously the crazy one here.
But:

   As you know this was a small press conference, but a very important one, and it was scheduled to talk about the great things we are doing with the secretary on the Veteran's Administration, and we will talk about that very much so in a little while. But I thought I should put out a comment on what is happening in Charlottesville... But we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Va.
   We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence that's on many sides. On many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, it's been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America. What is vital now is the swift restoration of law and order, and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society. And no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play, or be with their parents, and have a good time.
   I just go off the phone with the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and we agreed that the hate and the division must stop. And must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection — and really I say this so strongly — true affection for each other.
   Our country is doing very well in so many ways, we have record, just absolute record employment, we have unemployment at the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. We have companies pouring into our country, Foxcon and car companies, and so many others, they are coming back to our country. We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country, and great for the American worker. We have so many great things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me, it's very, very sad.
   I want to salute the great work of the state and local police in Virginia. Incredible people, law enforcement, incredible people. And also the National Guard, they've really been working smart and working hard. They've been doing a terrific job. Federal authorities are also providing tremendous support to the governor, he thanked me for that. We are here to provide any other assistance is needed. We are ready, willing, and able.
   Above all else we must remember this truth: no matter our color, creed, religion, or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country, we love our God, we love our flag, we're proud of our country, we're proud of who we are. So we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we are doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen.
   My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. We must love each other, respect each other, and cherish our history an our future together. So important. We have to respect each other, ideally we have to love each other.

   Now, again: I know enough to trust the collective wisdom of mankind over my own judgments. But surely it's a little bit difficult to see this as consistent with white supremacism. Hell, this statement is too touchy-feely lefty for me...  I don't think we have to love each other...I just think we have to leave each other the hell alone and treat each other with the minimal amount of respect due one's countrymen. I have a soft spot for all this lovey-dovey rhetoric, and I think it was basically the right thing to say in this case...but IMO it goes pretty far beyond what's true, and pretty far beyond what was minimally required in the situation. More to the point: all this stuff seems to me to be a direct, unequivocal denial of the central tenets of racialism / white supremacism. We all need to love each other despite our color? Where the hell is the wiggle room there?
   So far as I can tell, the objection is, approximately:
   Trump did not condemn white supremacism, Nazism, and the Klan by name.
   Ok. I think that lavishly condemning the principles of those groups is sufficient--way, way more than sufficient. The claim that he needed to use the words...I understand it, and it doesn't seem to me to be entirely weightless, but it barely moves my epistemic meter. I just don't believe it's the unforgivable crime that everyone else seems to think it is. And it certainly doesn't seem overtly and undeniably sinister to me.  Again, obviously this is a defect in me. If absolutely everybody, including David F. Duke, disagrees, then that's on me.
   I know that's got to be true...but I'll admit, I don't quite feel it in my guts yet.