Americans have had over a week to finally settle for the definitive perception they have of President Trump's moral authority, after the violent events of Charlottesville, Virginia. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) was on Face the Nation on Sunday where he questioned the President's moral authority saying that it remained compromised after Trump's trilogy of controversial statements he made last week. Prior to his weekend appearance, Sen. Scott had already started to get "the ball rolling" with Vice News about the President's moral authority, and here is that clip.

'Tough guy' Trump

President Trump's act of machismo was on display last week when he tried to convince Americans of his toughness by blaming "both sides" for the violence that broke out in Charlottesville. The violence was triggered by a "Unite the Right" rally that started on the University of Virginia campus. The rally included white nationalists, white supremacists, self-proclaimed neo-Nazis and Trump's "alt-right" supporters to protest the removal of a Confederate statue which the city council had already voted to remove.

His public statements would have served Donald Trump well in order for him to turn his presidency around, if even for a little bit. But his machismo took the lead and instead of condemning those hate groups, he allocated blame on both sides. Politico reported last week in an article titled: "‘He is stubborn and doesn't realize how bad this is getting’" that Trump's trilogy of controversial statements was made in part because he was angry about the fact that he was expected to denounce those hate groups.

Immoral authority

The first statement he made after the violence was that both sides were at fault before he was forced to make a formal statement to condemn those hate groups. His third statement where he doubled-down on equivalence, however, pretty much "sealed the deal" for Americans, thanks to his anger, triggered by the expectations for him to calm the nation by those around him.

Aside from this, President Trump was clearly trying to rewire the public mindset to view everything with neutral equivalency. But being that there are already plenty of reasons to believe that he not only panders to white supremacists but that they also make up his base, it was clear to Americans why he wasn't fully condemning those hate groups.

During his prime-time speech about Afghanistan on Monday, he returned to his "presidential" mode where he read off of a teleprompter, sticking to the script and showing restraint in contrast to his more incendiary moments.

Sen. Scott gives Trump another chance?

The speech about Afghanistan, in itself, was a perfect example of how the President can be a more controlled figure as the speech was made after the removal of an enabler and just as a toxic figure, Steven Bannon. The control over an out-of-control president can be credited to new Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly who is also responsible for restoring some normalcy to the White House. Despite this, Trump has already shown that not even Kelly will be able to restore Donald Trump's lack of moral authority.

Even though this is the case, during his interview on Face the Nation, Sen. Scott seemed to leave room for the President to restore his moral authority by saying that it remained compromised. This is very much in league with how supportive Republicans are of Trump, where even when the President has hit a new low in showing his support for white supremacist hate groups, Republicans are willing to give him another chance to recover. Here is a clip of that interview.
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