The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times EDT) :
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times EDT) :
5: 20 p.m.
President Donald Trump is abandoning his plans to form an infrastructure advisory council.
It’s the third such industry council to be eliminated by the White House this week after the backlash to the president’s comments blaming “both sides” for the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The White House says in a statement Thursday that the infrastructure council, which was still being formed, “will not move forward.”
The administration said Wednesday it was ending two other advisory councils made up primarily of business leaders, the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum. The decision followed a series of announcements by CEOs that they were quitting the councils following Trump’s remarks.
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4: 40 p.m.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott is telling a newspaper in his home state of South Carolina that President Donald Trump’s response to violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, “complicates this administration’s moral authority.”
Scott is the Senate’s only black Republican. His comments to The Post and Courier of Charleston come after Trump said “both sides” were to blame for deadly violence between white supremacists and counterdemonstrators in Charlottesville.
He tells the newspaper that by drawing a “moral equivalency” between the two sides, “I think you are either missing four centuries of history in this nation or you are trying to make something what it’s not.”
Scott says Trump’s controversies have compromised the GOP’s ability to get things done on health care, taxes and financial regulations and have put Republicans in a “precarious position.”
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1: 10 p.m.
The White House says it is working to find a “convenient” time for President Donald Trump to speak with the family of the 32-year-old woman who was killed nearly a week ago while protesting a white nationalist rally in her Charlottesville, Virginia, hometown.
Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters says the White House appreciates the “unifying words” that Heather Heyer’s mother spoke at her daughter’s memorial service Wednesday.
Walters says “our thoughts and prayers are with the family.” Walters did not address the question of whether Trump planned to visit Charlottesville.
Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, asked mourners attending the service to ask themselves what can they do as individuals to make a difference.
Heyer was killed Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters.
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12: 45 p.m.
The White House says reports that President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser is stepping down are “100 percent false.”
A White House official says “nothing has changed” in terms of Gary Cohn’s focus on his job leading the National Economic Council.
The official declined to say whether Trump and Cohn have spoken about Cohn’s reaction to Trump’s comments about the recent deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators.
The protest included chants against Jews. Cohn, who is Jewish, stood alongside Trump when the president he said “very fine people” were on both sides of the protest.
Trump’s comments sparked speculation that top administration officials, including Jewish members, would resign in protest.
Trump has previously floated the possibility of nominating Cohn to chair the Federal Reserve.
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11: 48 a.m.
Ivanka Trump’s rabbi is condemning President Donald Trump’s response to a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein told his New York synagogue that he is “deeply troubled by the moral equivalency and equivocation” of Trump’s reaction.
Trump has blamed “both sides” in last week’s march that also drew neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members. A car plowed into a group of counterprotesters, killing a woman and injuring 19 others.
Lookstein is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. He oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism. She and her husband, Jared Kushner, were longtime members of the synagogue. Lookstein only rarely comments on the Trumps.
Lookstein’s message was posted Wednesday night on the Facebook page of the modern Orthodox synagogue and was signed by the congregation’s other rabbis.
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10: 58 a.m.
A group of Arizona Democrats is urging President Donald Trump not to pardon Joe Arpaio (ahr-PY’-oh) .
Congressmen Ruben Gallego, Raul Grijalva (gree-HAHL’-vuh) and Tom O’Halleran say in a letter to Trump that the former Phoenix-area sheriff shouldn’t get any “relief from the penalties he deservedly faces for his illegal conduct and brazen abuse of the public trust.”
Trump told Fox News in an interview earlier this week that he may pardon Arpaio, who was one of his early supporters.
A federal judge ruled in 2013 that Arpaio’s officers had racially profiled Latinos. But Arpaio refused to stop his immigration patrols, which led to his criminal contempt of court case.
The lawmakers tell Trump a pardon would send a “clear message that your allies are immune from prosecution.”
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9: 50 a.m.
President Donald Trump says it’s “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart” with the removal of Confederate statues and monuments around the country.
Local and state officials have renewed pushes to remove Confederate imagery from public property since the violence and death of a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a white nationalist rally over the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue.
Baltimore and other cities have already removed or covered up Confederate statues.
Trump in a Thursday tweet called them “our beautiful statues and monuments” and said “you can’t change history, but you can learn from it.”
“Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!” Trump continued. “The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!”
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9: 30 a.m.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham says President Donald Trump’s stance on the Charlottesville, Virginia violence and death is garnering praise from “some of the most racist and hate-filled individuals and groups” and called on him to “please fix this.”
Trump and Graham have been going after each other since the president’s statements on the violence and death of a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a white nationalist rally.
Trump on Thursday called Graham a “publicity seeking” lawmaker and tweeted that Graham’s contention that the president had said there was “moral equivalency between the KKK, neo-Nazis & white supremacists and people like Ms. Heyer” was a “disgusting lie.”
Graham replied on Twitter soon thereafter that the president’s statements on Charlottesville have garnered him “praise from some of the most racist and hate-filled individuals and groups in our country.”
“For the sake of our Nation — as our President — please fix this. History is watching us all, ” Graham tweeted.
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8: 10 a.m.
President Donald Trump is touting a primary opponent looking to unseat GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has criticized the president’s response to the violence and death of a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia.
