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Former Trump White House lawyer Jim Schultz suggested it was a “big mistake” that Donald Trump had referred to the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a rant outside the courthouse hosting his hush money trial on Thursday.
The former president and presumptive GOP nominee claimed the white supremacist “Unite the Right” hate rally was a “little peanut” compared to campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
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“Just the fact that he’s mentioning Charlottesville has to make his campaign cringe at this point, right?” Schultz told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Former Trump lawyer: For Trump to bring up Charlottesville just now was a big mistake. It was really bad. He looks tired. I don't think it was a good idea to go out and do that in any shape and form pic.twitter.com/RotTDR8lLs
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) April 25, 2024
“That just brings back all those bad memories about that issue. That was a really bad issue for him at the time,” he continued. “I was in the White House when all that was unfolding and to bring that back now was a big mistake on his part, politically, to raise that.”
At the time, Trump drew fierce blowback for claiming there were “very fine people on both sides” of the march.
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The rest of Trump’s comments on Thursday ― which contained multiple untruths ― were just “campaign rhetoric,” Schultz added.
Trump seemed “a little tired,” the lawyer said. He also suggested the former president shouldn’t do such briefings unless he’s going to “be sharp and make his points.”
Schultz was an associate White House counsel throughout 2017.
In 2021, he told CNN’s Bianna Golodryga that he wouldn’t act as a private attorney for Trump.
“I know that I would not serve as his personal counsel,” he said. “He tends to run over his personal attorneys and not take their advice when they give it to him and tries to strategize beyond what the lawyers are trying to do in court. So, that’s not something I would take on as a personal attorney.”
— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) February 15, 2021Given the numerous legal cases Trump faces, I asked his former White House lawyer, Jim Schultz, if he would consider personally representing him if asked:
"Look, I just would not. I wouldn't take on that representation at this point in time for all the reasons we've seen." pic.twitter.com/Jx7YV8SSap
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