Former Rep. J.C. Watts expressed concerns Thursday that President Donald Trump "doesn't understand the magnitude of what being a president is" because he did not "speak with clarity" on the Charlottesville attacks over the weekend.
"The president hurts himself," Watts, a former four-term Oklahoma Republican, told Chuck Todd on MSNBC. "He hurts our country when he does not speak with clarity about an issue that says pretty clearly two plus two is four.
"It's not three.
"He is the president — and I have some concerns that he doesn't understand the magnitude of what being a president is."
Trump flipped-flopped several times in his comments about Saturday's violence that killed Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville, and injured 19 others.
He first said Saturday that "both sides" were to blame in the melee — and after coming under strong attack from across the political spectrum, slammed the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white nationalists groups on Monday.
But, then, on Tuesday, President Trump returned to his original position in a heated session with reporters at Trump Tower in New York City.
Watts, the first African American elected to Congress from the Sooner State, called on fellow Republicans to hold Trump accountable for his positons.
"If somebody doesn't grab the attention of the president," he told Todd, "the Republican Party is going to pay a serious price."
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