megan's smile is getting a lot because she uses act® mouthwash. act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. >> i think there's blame on both sides. you look at both sides. i think there's blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it. >> a defiant angry president trump once again putting counterprotesters on the same level as white supremacists and nazi sympathizers. why did he abandon his message just a day earlier abandoning hate groups? welcome to "early today." >> it's wednesday, it's august

16th. a difficult day in this country for some. we begin with president trump at a stunning news conference, the president making a dramatic pivot in charlottesville reverting back to his original vague response to saturday blaming both sides for the unrest equating white supremacists with counterprotesters. >> during a combative exchange with reporters there in the trump tower lobby, the president says those protesters were also the aggressors. when asked if he was putting them on the same moral plane, again, people who gathered to protest racism and people who were holding up homemade shields and tiki torches he said this.

>> you had a group on one side and you had a group on the other and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was a horrible thing to watch but there is another side. there was a group on this side. you can call them the left. you've just called them the left that came violently attacking the other group so you can say what you want but that's the way it was. >> you said there was hatred -- >> i do think there's blame on both sides. >> what about the alt left that came charging as you say the alt right. do they have any semblance of guilt? let me ask you this. what about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands? do they have any problems? i watched them much more closely than you watched it and you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent

and nobody wants to say that, but i'll say it right now. >> the president's comments making it clear his condemnation of the hate groups just a day earlier was largely a sterilized version of his views. the president also raising eyebrows with his take on the nationwide effort to remove c confederate memorials. and maintaining white supremacy. more from trump tower in new york. >> the presidency of donald trump appeared torr heavily damaged after he he reverted to the violence in charlottesville. he went on to blame both sides to the unrest that led to the death of heather heyer. echoing some of the complaints of white nationalists and

wondering whether monuments of george washington might be next. >> is george washington a slave owner? so will george washington now lose his status? are we going to take down statues to george washington? how about thomas jefferson? what do you think about thomas jefferson? you like him? are we going to take down the statue? he was a major slave owner. so you know what? it's pheno. you're changing history, you're changing culture and you had people and i'm not talking about the neo-nazis but you had plenty of people other than those and the press has treated them unfairly. >> it drew criticism from unside his own party. the president's ability to

effectively govern may be dwindling by the hour. >> the charlottesville valley was to protest the taking down of the stat kwhu of robert e. lee. here's what some of those protesters were chanting. >> jews will not replace us. >> vice news was imbedded with those protesters friday and throughout the weekend. they shared that video. the message not quite about monuments. the tragedy appears to be accelerated to remove statues across the country. at least two of baltimore's four confederate monuments were removed overnight. other cities including gainesville, florida and lexington kentucky are planning

to remove monuments. >> there are 1,500 confederate monuments in this country. many of them went up and others say this is america's history so how do you recognize through monuments what happened, but not glorify or let white supremacists glorify the stain of slavery? >> this debate will continue across the country indeed against the days ahead. shifting position on the tragedy, paul ryan tweeting this. white supremacy is repulsive. mr. president, you can't allow white supremacists to share only part of the blame. they support ideas which cost

the nation and the world so much pain. they'll be assigned only 50% as a win. i can say that on those message boards and media outlets they are doing a victory outlet and thanking president trump for thanking them. i think the only sitting congressman, senator that took on the president. many were critical but not necessarily taking on their president. one saying we cannot accept excuses for white supremacy. we must condemn them, period. and the moral authority of this nation rests upon clarity of convictions and actions that reenforce our commitment to the greater good for all. let us not repeat history with ambiguity when it matters most.

there is no gray area when it comes to condemning groups. >> so let's talk about where the president did find some support. david duke, the former imperial tweeting thank you for your honesty and kushlg to tell the trooit about charlottesville and condemn the leftist terrorists and black lives matters. a scathing editorial entitled the nation can only weep. the editorial begins like this. tuesday was a great die for david duke and racists everywhere. the president of the united states all but declared he has their backs. members of the presidency and the circle caught completely offguard by his charlottesville comments but not by their comments. >> they were hoping that the president would keep the focus

on infrastructure which was what he was talking about in the first place. take a look at this photo of john kelly looking down during the president's comments. he is very frustrated by this turn of events. >> one person describes him as distracted and irritable because of the negative charlottesville media coverage and we can expect him to continue with his view of this tragedy. a gop source says white house aides are asking his surrogates to emphasize both sides acted inappropriately and there's a list of talking points that went out to surrogates and some rejecting these talking points. numb number one on those talking points the president was correct. >> if president trump is determined to keep the support

of the alt right steve bannon could play a critical role here. the president and his chief strategists communicated by text on saturday when mr. trump first refused to condemn white supremacists. >> we're told the president is torn when it comes to bannon. the president is said to be very worried about losing his base. there have been reports of a rift between bannon and his boss. listen to the president's response when he was asked about his relationship. >> i like him. he's a good man. he is not a racist. he's a good person. he gets a very unfair press in that regard but we'll see what happens with mr. bannon. >> not exactly an endorsement there. so how much longer will he have a job? a person close to the president

says quote for now, not for long, doutsful. >> and the president is losing more corporate leaders on his side. the cost of working with the white house, does it outweigh the benefits especially to their brands? six business leaders have now withdrawn r. three manufacturing union leaders. the president's remarks were the final straw. he says he can't sit on the council for a president who tolerates bigotry. the president is accusing those who quit being grand standers. and he lashed out at the people who say they can't advise him anymore. walmart ceo says he missed an opportunity to reunite the country. is that worth giving up a seat at the table?

so far some companies said no. these companies will stay. dow chemical. ge. that could change if trump's brand becomes too toxic and new ceos are receiving backlash movements to quit. he's been pushing them to make their stuff domestically. a reminder that the president's products that bear his name overseas. his daughter's products are made overseas and he's quick to be critical -- >> and millions of americans voted for him because his business sense, that he would create sense and you have six ceos pulling out. >> i would say more than six. >> charlottesville. >> there's been a drip, drip,

drip of executives that say they think he's got a pro business environment here but they're the ones creating jobs and they think it's just not worth it. heather heyer, the woman killed in charlottesville when a car plowed into protesters will be remembered today. it will be open to the public. the theater marquee displaying the message, lives lost, but not forgotten. heather, jay, including the names of the virginia state troopers killed during the rally on saturday. a tweet from former president obama is now the most liked tweet ever. it's a quote from nelson mandela along with a picture of obama saying no one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin hr oiz background or his religion. >> liked more than 2.9 million

times. also ranked 7th among the most retweeted according to the site fave star. the former president has tweeted a handful of times each month to weigh in on national conversations. >> we're far from done with this story. next, china with a blunt message to the u.s. and north korea. so what planned u.s. activity could set off kim jong-un? we're live in seoul on early start.

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china is calling to put the brakes on prav occasion and name calling. now that kim jong-un has backed off his threat to fire missiles. he decided to hold off on a plan to launch four missiles on a

trajectory over japan. let's go live to seoul for the latest developments. good morning to you, paula. >> reporter: this is a tactic that china has tried many times before basically calling on both sides to back down, to stop any provocative words which could make the situation more tense. and china has also been calling for a freeze on the military drills in return for a freeze of the nuclear missile program on the side. washington has not entertained the thought of giving up their military drills. china and russia have been talking about this situation saying there is no alternative to a political and diplomatic solution. there is simply no other way to deal with the crisis. the russian foreign ministry saying that any threats against north korea are simply unacceptable. we've heard from the state run

newspaper saying that they are slamming what they see as south korea calling for dialog at the same time for pushing for sanctions and carrying out military drills with the united states. so next week is when those next set of military drills happen. one saving grace is they're not very visual. potential potentially less provocative to north korea. the president's condemnation gave late night hosts plenty to work with. >> i can't believe we did not see you condemn them sooner. >> it cease 's so hard to laugh it. how they handled the reversal on nazi sympathizers next.

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we do business where you do business. ♪ ♪ criticism of president trump for blaming both sides for the deadly charlottesville violence in that racist rally. he was swift and sharp, among those most eager to pounce the late night crowd, tweeting this as the news broke. monologue blown up again, good thing colbert late show team is used to this, hash tag intense. >> even though many criticized how long it took the president knew the right thing was to make a statement on monday, be clear about who was to blame and then move on to the people's business. i'm just kidding.

>> before i make a statement, i need the facts. >> okay. i wait for the facts. okay? just ask the millions of illegal voters who refused to look for obama's birth certificate during my record breaking inauguration. okay? it's all on the obama wiretap. >> i think there's blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either. >> well, the only thing i'm doubting right now is whether you're still going to be president bied from friday. >> president trump gave a press conference that can only be described as insane. that list of side effects, he has apparently has all of them. >> is it george washington next week and is it thomas jefferson the week after? you know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop? >> where does it stop?

buddy, we've been asking ourselves that question since january. >> even though we won't talk about donald trump much tonight and then he opened his mouth and all manner of stupid came out. i don't know who decided it would be a good idea to send him out there to talk to reporters today but whoever did obviously misread his state of mind and the mood in this country right now. i feel like i can say this with reasonable certainty. the president is unhinged. you can dig in like chris christie at a hometown buffet or you can treat this situation as if you put star wars wallpaper up in the kitchen. all right. i made a mistake and now it needs to go. well, now he does need to go. >> but to be clear, there are millions of trump voters who did like what they heard yesterday. they did feel this from the

start. i heard from many, many of those people throughout the day. so this is not a wakeup call for all of trump voters as some have characterized it this morning. >> 27 minutes past the hour this morning. >> president trump says he did not want to rush when he initially did not condemn those in charlottesville. >> i wanted to make sure unlike most politicians that what i said was correct. i want to know the facts. >> so now that he knows the facts, why did the president go back to blaming all sides for this violence? horseheadswivellychair.com

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i think there's blame on both sides. you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it.

>> a defiant president trump once again putting protesters on white supremacists and nazi sympathizers. why did he abandon his message just a day earlier? welcome back to early start. >> a very busy morning this morning. we begin with president trump going off the rails at a simply stunning news conference. the president making a disturbing pivot on the deadly violence at the white supremacist rally in charlottesville. he went back to his original response from saturday blaming both sides for the unrest equating white supremacists with the counterprotester who is are against racism. >> during a combative exchange the president said those protesters who he dubbed the alt left were also aggressors. he said this.

>> you had a group on one side and you had a group on the other and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible and it was a horrible thing to watch. but there is another side. there was a group on this side, you can call them the left, you've just called them the left that came violently attacking the other group. so you can say what you want, but that's the way it is. >> on both sides you said there was hatred on both sides? >> i do think there's blame on both sides. >> what about the alt left that came charging as you say the alt right? do they have any semblance of guilt? >> let me ask you this. what about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands swinging clubs? do they have any problem? i think they do. i watched those very closely. much more closely than you people watched it and you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was

also very violent and nobody wants to say that but i'll say it right now. >> the president's innocents making it clear his condemnation of the hate groups just a day early, that was just a sterilized version of his views. he read a prepared statement that many thought should have come saturday and now here he goes back to the saturday position. the president also raising eye y brows on the stake to remove memorials. the president unable to different shat between flawed american leaders, leaders of the american revolution and the confederate generals who wanted to secede from the yawn i don't know, who wanted to keep blacks in chains. we were at the news conference and has more from trump tower in new york. >> the presidency of donald trump appeared torr heavily

damaged after he reverted to his initial response in charlottesville. the president went on to blame both sides to the unrest that led to the death of heather heyer. he complained about the removal of the stat kwhu ecue and wonde whether monuments to george washington might be next? >> was george washington a slave owner? so will he now lose his status? are we going to take down statues to george washington? how about thomas jefferson? what do you think of thomas jefferson? you like him? okay, good. are we going to take down the statue? because he was a major slave owner. you're changing history, you're changing culture and you had people and i'm not talking about the knee oneo nazis and others,

you had many people in that group and the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. >> the president's latest remarks drew media criticism from inside his own party with one source telling cnn the president's ability to effectively govern may be dwindling by the hour. >> thank you, jim. the president says the charlottesville rally was to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e. lee but what some of those protesters were chanting. >> jews will not replace us. >> that's from vice news. vice news was embedded with the white nationalists at the rally. the message you can see there. this is not just an isolated moment. the message is not about

monuments. the message there is about white supremacy. the charlottesville tragedy appears to have accelerated the removal of confederate statues across the country. at least two of baltimore's four monuments were removed overnight. other cities including florida and kentucky, they are planning to move confederate monuments. 31 different states, they range from everything like glorified, you know, confederate generals on horses to also sort of nameless confederate soldiers with the angel of peace and forgiveness over them. some of them have forgiveness of the war and others are holding up the confederacy. >> and it also depends when these were built. some were put up in the 60s at a time of tension as a statement that we will not give up our

past while others were put up in the 1920s. so i think that depends on the local community. this should be a local issue for the local leaders to decide i be the debate will continue. criticism of the president coming from all sides in the wake of this shifting position on the charlottesville tragedy. paul ryan tweeting we must be clear. there can be no moral ambiguity. marco rubio weighing in and going off in multiple tweets. mr. president, you can't allow white supremacists to share only part of blame. they support ideas which cost the nation and world so much pain. the white supremacy groups will see being the side of only 50% of the blame to be a win. >> and this from the arizona republican, we cannot accept

excuses for white supremacy. tim scott says the moral authority of this nation rests upon clarity of convictions and actions that reenforce our commitment to the greater good for all. let us not repeat history when it matters the most. there is no gray area when it comes to condemning groups when it comes to racism and division. >> it will be interesting to find out what they say when faced to the cameras but the president did find some support for his comments on charlottesville but not the kind you want. david duke tweeting thank you, president trump for your honesty and courage to tell the truth about charlottesville and condemn the leftist terrorists black lives matter and the washington post invoked david duke saying the nation can only

weep. begins tuesday was a great day for david duke and racists everywhere. >> members of the president's inner circle caught offguard by his comments. these most recent charlottesville comments. a white house official telling us this was all him. this wasn't our plan. they were hoping the president would keep the focus on infrastructure which is what he was talking about in the first place. today it's about renegotiating nafta. it's entirely a message created by him at that press conference. look at this picture of john kelly looking straight down at the floor. he's very frustrated by this turn of events. >> i think there was surprise by the turn of events yesterday, but not by the opinions of the president. if you listen to the reporting of our folks up on capitol hill, they'll tell you this was the president's thoughts from the

start on this. he was infuriated that he had to go back on monday and read the scripted statement. this is the way he intended it. >> this is the way he really feels. >> and you saw a passionate president trump speaking about that yesterday. one person who spent time with the president describes him as quote, distracted and irritable because of all the negative court and jury and we continue to see his coverage of the tragedy. >> all right. if president trump is determined to keep the support of the alt right steve bannon could play a critical role. a source tells cnn the president and his chief strat just communicated by text on saturday when mr. trump first refused to condemn white supremacists. >> we are told that president trump is torn when it comes to

bannon. ivanka trump and several others want him out but the president is very worried about losing his base. there have been reports of a rift between bannon and his boss. listen to the president's response when he was asked about their relationship. >> i like him. he's a good man. he is not a racist. i can tell you that. he's a good person. he actually gets a unfair press in that regard. buzz we'll see what happens with mr. bannon. >> not a full throated endorsement. also very unusual to have him stand up and say my chief strategist is not a racist. so how much longer will bannon have a job? a person close to the chief strategist says for now, probably. for long, doubtful. heather heyer, the woman killed in the riots will be remembered today.

the theater marquee displaying the message lives lost but not forgotten. heather, jay, burk including the names of the two virginia state troopers killed in a helicopter crash during this rally on saturday. >> and president trump declares he can fix racism in america. he will create jobs. people will be making money. quote, much more money than they ever thought possible. that will fix race relations. >> they've been frayed for a long time and you can apresiden obama about that because he made speeches about that. but i believe it will be soon x millions of jobs, you see where companies are moving back into our country, i think that's going to have a positive impact on race relations. >> racism is a painful subject that social scientists have studied for more than two generations now. even in the best of times, the

spoils of job creation go disproportionately to white workers over black workers. today the jobless rate for black americans is nearly double that of whites. the reason, it's a toxic brew, education, family resources, a whole host of things. the president was not specific about how his job creation would end racism. the president again declared he has created a million jobs. the job creation is exactly on pace with the last six months of president obama. another point, presidents don't create jobs. companies create jobs. small businesses create jobs. mom and pop stores create jobs and the cracks are starting to show between trump and corporate america. six business leaders have quit

the association this week. >> they do create an environment. would you agree? >> exactly. >> and sometimes it's so interesting because president gets too much credit and too much blame for the economy but this president has taken all of the credit giving none of it to obama. so the risk is he has taken so much. >> an interesting wall street journal op ed. >> a president who loses the business class has a big problem. all right. the u.s. and north korea need to dial down the heated rhetoric. can it stay that way with military drills planned in the region? we're live in north korea ahead on early start.

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china is calling on the u.s. and north korea to put the brakes on the name calling. now that kim jong-un has backed off with his decision to launch four missiles on a trajectory over japan. let's go to the latest developments. rex tillerson once again, a call for diplomacy in the midst of all of this. >> reporter: that's right. well, this wordy ploem si we are hearing a lot this week showing that there's some what of a pullback from both sides. we've heard china saying you have to put the brakes on. they said in the past they thought the u.s. and north korea were like two trains. they are back to calling for restraint from both sides. but we're hearing the same from

russia and china. and they said there's no alternative to a diplomatic resolution to what is happening in north korea. there's simply no other way to deal with this. a diplomatic and economic measure needs to be focused on. we also heard on the russian foreign ministry website saying any threats of violence or threats of war are simply unacceptable. we did hear the state run newspaper slamming it and talking about sanctions and about to be carrying out these military drills with the united states. the fact is though the computer simulations are potentially less provocative to north korea. >> all eyes on those exercises next week. the action of sierra leon,

the death toll rising to 297. more than 600 people are still missing. heavy rains triggered a river of mud down this mountainside. the country's president pleading for urgent support in the face of overwhelming devastation. uber is being punished once again by the u.s. government for deceptive behavior. we'll tell you why on cbs moneystream. if you have medicare

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retail stocks fell sharply on a few major retailers. we've been telling you about this shift from online to brick and mortar. this affected the broader sector. it lost and home depot had strong results. the market is coming off its biggest one day game all summer. right now we'll check u.s. futures and they are higher. uber is being punished for deceptive behavior. they've agreeing to be audited for the next 20 years. the case revolves around an incident in which licenses were accessed at a breach. uber didn't take enough steps to secure its data. wells fargo is naming a female chairman to its board. elizabeth duke as chairman, she

takes charge january 1 and inherits a board that has been rocked by scandal including this, it created some two million fake accounts last year. she looks forward to making wells fargo a better company today and in the future. >> boy, does she have her hands full. >> good luck to her. okay. we get a history lesson on the president's press conference and the politics of what happened yesterday from zach wolf as early start continues right now. i think there's blame on both sides. you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it. >> a defiant president trump once again putting counter protesters on relatively the same level as white supremacists and nazi sympathizers. welcome to early start. the president will wake up to

these headlines. he's here in new york where these are the newspapers. he will not like his favorite newspaper. this one. >> and also from the editorial boards of newspapers that have been loyal to him in the past. >> it is wednesday, august 16th. president trump going off the rails. the president making a disturbing pivot on the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in charlottesville reverting back to his original vague response from saturday blaming both sides for the unrest equating white supremacists with the counterprotesters. >> during a combative exchange the president said those protesters who he dubbed the alt left were also the aggressors. when asked if he was putting them on the same mor