President Donald Trump and Sen. Tim Scott on Wednesday had a "very open and honest conversation" about the president's response to the Charlottesville violence — "but the focus was primarily on solutions moving forward," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
"They talked about it pretty in-depth, but the focus was primarily on solutions moving forward," Sanders told reporters at the daily briefing.
"That was what both people came to the meeting wanting to discuss: What we can do to bring people together, not talk about divisions within the country."
Scott, 51, the first African-American senator from South Carolina and the only black Republican in the Senate, slammed Trump's second round of comments last month about the Charlottesville attacks that killed one woman and injured 19 others during a press conference at Trump Tower.
Scott, who was first elected in 2012, himself said of the meeting, according to CNN: "I'm a fellow that wants measurable progress in a reasonable amount of time.
"If you expect some sort of an epiphany or transformation to occur overnight just because somebody walks into a room, I think they don't understand human nature."
In an interview with HBO last month, Scott said: "What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. That moral authority's compromised when Tuesday happens.
"There's no question about that.
"We should all call that on the carpet," Scott said. "I certainly have."
Sanders told reporters that Trump and Scott were "committed to continuing those conversations and making sure that today was just the first step of many of those meetings.
"I think that will be an ongoing process," she said.
Sanders added that Trump stood by his initial comments on Charlottesville and that the president would sign a congressional resolution condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other hate groups.
The House approved the measure by voice vote Tuesday, a day after the Senate also cleared it by voice vote.
Trump had initially asserted that good people were on "both sides" of the Charlottesville rally and bemoaned efforts to remove Confederate monuments as an attack on America's "history and culture."
"He's been very consistent in that fact," Sanders said of Trump's first comments. "He and the senator talked about that and discussed that and agreed that that was the appropriate place to be.
"He'll sign the joint resolution, absolutely, and he looks forward to doing so as soon as he receives it."
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