President Trump doubled-down on Twitter and defended the “beautiful” Confederate statues:

Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You… can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also… the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!

First Read: “We have no idea how this all plays out for President Trump and his administration. We’ve seen Trump survive past controversies (Khizr Khan, Access Hollywood), but he no longer has an opponent/foil like Hillary Clinton. We’ve seen past presidents (LBJ, Nixon, Clinton) endure their share of turbulent times, but it’s never come this early in a presidency. And we’ve never seen so many members of the president’s own political party openly criticize him, but still vote for his agenda most of the time.”

“Using the words ‘uncharted waters’ has become a bit cliché during the Trump Era — everything has been so different. But there also are no better words to use right now. And the turmoil comes at a pressing time: escalating tensions with North Korea, a debt ceiling that needs to be raised, and midterm elections that are right around the corner.”

Carl Bernstein on CNN: “I think there’s considerable evidence that there is a consensus developing in the military; at the highest levels in the intelligence community; among Republicans in Congress; including the leaders in the business community that President Trump is unfit to be the President of the United States.”

He added: “I’ve talked to some of the military leaders and what they are saying is extraordinary… They have given up on this president.”

Finally: “I think all reporters need to be checking their sources and finding out what people on the Hill and in the military and in the intelligence community are saying… about the stability and the mental condition of the president of the United States. This is something we haven’t dealt with before.”

A new CBS News poll finds that while 55% of Americans disapprove of the way President Trump reacted to the violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville, 67% of Republicans approve of his response.

A new PRRI survey finds that 40% of Americans — including nearly three-quarters of Democrats but just seven percent of Republicans — back impeaching President Trump and removing him from office.

“A clear pattern has emerged when President Trump does something highly controversial or deeply offensive to large chunks of America. Within 24 hours, a story is leaked about how Ivanka and Jared are disappointed or tried to stop it,” Axios reports.

“Jared and Ivanka provided some hope for some on the left who hoped the duo would have power to dissuade President Trump from some of his most extreme promises. But the truth is, they only have so much influence. And their shock and dismay always get conveniently leaked to the media to distance them from Trump’s most controversial acts.”

Playbook: “Bannon has told people he did not believe this was an on-the-record call. Kuttner, who wrote the piece, said he and Bannon never discussed it being off the record. Generally speaking, that’s a conversation you have if you want your remarks kept private. To believe Bannon is to believe that he was caught off guard after calling the reporter, forgot the rules of conventional journalism or believed a left-wing reporter would keep his incendiary remarks private.”

“Bannon is an incredibly savvy political operator who talks to reporters all the time, and did these interviews for some reason. Yes, Bannon, who is a top adviser to the president who harps on leaking, is constantly gabbing with journalists. He gave two interviews over the course of roughly 48 hours. His job was on the line, then he found himself aligned with the president over protests in the south. He used the Prospect to dump on Gary Cohn, the president’s economic adviser, with whom he has clashed, and to get his views heard on China. Whatever his motivation was, he felt like he should dial up some reporters and get his take out there.”

President Trump’s personal lawyer “forwarded an email to conservative journalists, government officials and friends that echoed secessionist Civil War propaganda and declared that the group Black Lives Matter ‘has been totally infiltrated by terrorist groups,'” the New York Times reports.

“The email forwarded by John Dowd, who is leading the president’s legal team, painted the Confederate general Robert E. Lee in glowing terms and equated the South’s rebellion to that of the American Revolution against England.”

White House adviser Stephen Bannon called Robert Kuttner at the American Prospect to discuss his article on China but apparently didn’t realize the entire conversation was on the record.

Among the highlights:

• He admitted he was fighting with colleagues: “That’s a fight I fight every day here. We’re still fighting. There’s Treasury and Gary Cohn and Goldman Sachs lobbying… We gotta do this. The president’s default position is to do it, but the apparatus is going crazy. Don’t get me wrong. It’s like, every day.”
• He undercut the president’s threats on North Korea: “There’s no military solution, forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
• He explained his strategy towards race: “The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”
• On white nationalists: “Ethno-nationalism—it’s losers. It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more. These guys are a collection of clowns.”

Jonathan Swan: “The piece gives Bannon’s enemies ammunition at a time he’s extraordinarily vulnerable. They’ve been saying he’s a leaker, a self-promoter, ‘President Bannon,’ etc. This interview plays right into their hands.”

Washington Post: “The uproar — which has consumed not only the White House but the Republican Party — left Kelly deeply frustrated and dismayed just over two weeks into his job, said people familiar with his thinking. The episode also underscored the difficult challenges that even a four-star general faces in instilling a sense of order around Trump, whose first instinct when cornered is to lash out, even self-destructively.”

“A Republican operative and unofficial White House adviser was more definitive, saying that no matter how respected or talented Kelly may be, his first 2½ weeks on the job demonstrated an essential truth about the Trump White House: The president will act as he so pleases, even despite — and sometimes to spite — the efforts of his aides.”

Politico: “White House officials and informal advisers say the triggers for his temper are if he thinks someone is lying to him, if he’s caught by surprise, if someone criticizes him, or if someone stops him from trying to do something or seeks to control him.”

“That latter trigger — of attempting to corral him — set in motion the past five tense days surrounding Charlottesville.”