(JTA) — Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s Jewish daughter and son-in-law, tried and failed to convince her father to moderate his comments on the weekend's white supremacist rally and subsequent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to the New York Times.
On Monday, President Trump appeared to heed their advice — “grudgingly,” the Times reported — by reading a statement saying that “racism is evil” and calling out neo-Nazis and white supremacists in specific terms. On Tuesday, however, in extended unscripted remarks during a news conference in New York, Trump defended his prior assertion and said “there is blame on both sides” for the violence. He appeared to equate protesters on the far left and far right. A 32-year-old woman was killed Saturday in Charlottesville when a car driven by a white supremacist plowed into a group of counterprotesters.