Georgia state Senator Michael Williams (R) told CNN that while he would personally disapprove of President Trump using the N-word, the president should not be “berated” if he said it long ago.

Said Williams: “It would matter to me as an individual. It would not necessarily matter to me as the person that is running our country. He has his personal beliefs, his personal ideas. I truly believe he is able to separate those from how he is running the country.”

He added: “I don’t have a problem with Donald Trump having used it in the past as my president.”

Zach Beauchamp: “I reported from the ‘Unite the Right 2’ rally in Washington on Sunday. It was a dreary failure that attracted around 30 people in total and literally ended before it was supposed to start…”

“But as pathetic as of all that was, none of it was quite as hilariously humiliating to the alt-right as the video below — in which the rally’s organizer, Jason Kessler, is yelled at by his father to get out of his parents’ room in the middle of a live stream with a fellow alt-righter.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that she “can’t guarantee” that President Trump has never used the “N-word,” but said that she has never heard him say it, ABC News reports.

Adam Serwer: “That’s one of the stranger paradoxes of this political era: Trump’s political opponents know who he is. His aides know who he is. Americans don’t need a tape to know who Trump is, or what he represents. He’s already shown who he is. He shows it every day.”

“The only people still laboring under the delusion that Trump lacks the animus to use a racial epithet are some of the people who voted for him. It would be naive to think that a mere recording of him using it would alter that.”

A different take, for members: Why the ‘Apprentice’ Tapes Would Be a Big Deal

A new CBS News poll finds that 83% of Republicans approve of President Trump’s handling of racial issues in the country, including 44% who strongly approve.

In contrast, 90% of Democrats disapprove, including 80% who strongly disapprove.

“As white nationalists planned to gather in front of the White House on Sunday to mark the anniversary of last year’s violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., President Trump denounced ‘all types of racism,’ but did not specifically condemn the supremacists,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump’s general call for unity, as Washington braced for the possibility of violence between the white nationalists and counterdemonstrators, echoed his reluctance a year ago after the deadly Charlottesville rally to single out the supremacists for condemnation.”

Rep. Tom Garrett (R-VA) told CNN that he was told during a briefing with the FBI director that Russian meddling played in a role in “fomenting the flames of what happened in Charlottesville” one year ago, when a white nationalist rally turned violent.

Said Garrett: “I sat in a closed session briefing probably two months ago about Charlottesville with the director of the FBI, amongst others, and asked if Russian inter-meddling had to do with fomenting the flames of what happened in Charlottesville. I was told yes, it did.”

Politico: “Trump’s poll numbers, while still hitting a ceiling below 50 percent, in the year since Charlottesville have climbed up to a high of 44%, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Trump is in high demand as a campaign surrogate among Republican candidates.”

“His supportive gang of Fox News hosts have become more ethno-nationalist in their rhetoric than they were a year ago. Meanwhile, Trump himself is less constrained than he was after Charlottesville. At his campaign rallies and on Twitter, he has become more unadulterated in his critiques of what he calls the ‘fake news’ media.”

“The advisers who tried to serve as a check on his rash impulses have since left the administration and have been replaced with people more likely to let Trump set his own agenda. And, as he did on Friday, the president has continued to inflame racial tensions — something Democrats and Republicans alike see as fundamental to his power.”

ProPublica and Frontline have identified a white supremacist who punched Charlottesville protesters as Michael Miselis, a PhD student who has a federal security clearance as a systems engineer for Northrop Grumman.

“Northrop Grumman did not respond to several requests for comment. However, interviews with current and former Northrop employees, as well as an internal email, make clear the company knows of Miselis’ actions in Charlottesville and involvement with RAM. Miselis informed his superiors about his contact with reporters from ProPublica and FRONTLINE, as is required by any individual who holds a higher-level security clearance.”

“So far, it seems, the company has taken no action against Miselis, who remains employed.”

The National Park Service has approved an application for white nationalists to rally near the White House in August to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Charlottesville’s Unite the Right rally, the Washington Post reports.