The Times details Trump’s avoidances and lies.

President Trump on Saturday condemned thebloody protests in Charlottesville, Va., but did not specifically criticize the white nationalist rally and its neo-Nazi slogans beyond blaming “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.’’

Mr. Trump made the comments to reporters after initially tweeting a statement in language so vague that he omitted mention of Charlottesville…

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The president, who has spent much of the past two days threatening North Korea and congressional Republicans on Twitter and in other public statements, remained silent on the violence for most of the morning even as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, and dozens of other public figures condemned a march by white nationalists chanting anti-Semitic slurs.

Mr. Trump first weighed in at 1:19 p.m. “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!” the president said on Twitter.

He doesn’t mean a word of it. He’s just mouthing a formula because they told him he had to. Telling us to “condemn all that hate stands for” doesn’t mean anything, especially coming from a man who came to power by splashing hate around like holy water.

Mr. Trump did not single out the marchers, who included the white supremacist Richard Spencer and the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, for their ideology. He did, however, amend his original tweet to include a reference to Charlottesville.

His response drew criticism from Democrats. “Until @POTUS specifically condemns alt-right action in Charlottesville, he hasn’t done his job,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a tweet posted after Mr. Trump’s Twitter messages.

More than a half-hour before the president commented, Melania Trump, using her official “@FLOTUS” Twitter account, wrote, “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville.”

Mr. Ryan was even more explicit. “The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry,” he wrote on Twitter at noon, around the time that Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia declared a state of emergency in the typically sleepy college town.

The president has long denied any connection or affinity to so-called alt-right, racist or anti-Jewish groups, although some of his supporters have made little secret of their beliefs.

Steve Bannon works in his White House. His denials are an insult.