Reactions to the president’s controversial press conference saw the party split into those willing to condemn Trump by name and those who would not

Top Republicans have fervently criticised Donald Trump after the US president once again drew a moral equivalency between the far-right and counter-demonstrators during the deadly violence in Charlottesville on Saturday.

But some other elected Republican officials responded to an extraordinary press conference in Trump Tower on Tuesday night by broadly denouncing bigotry, in signs of a possible rift in the party.

No elected Republican officials went so far as to defend Trump outright after he insisted that not all of those participating in a “Unite the Right” protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee in the Virginian town were neo-Nazis or white supremacists.

After giving an apparently reluctant statement denouncing racism as evil on Monday, Trump reverted to his original response to the violence on Tuesday, blaming both sides for the violence, during which a civil rights activist died.

“I’m not putting anybody on a moral plane,” he said. “You had a group on one side and group on the other and they came at each other with clubs – there is another side, you can call them the left, that came violently attacking the other group.” Trump went on to say: “You had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

The divide between those willing to condemn Trump by name and those who did not mirrored the Republican response to the president’s infamous comments on the Access Hollywood tape, far more than other controversies that have swarmed around the president.

John McCain was among those calling out Trump by name. The Arizona senator tweeted: “There’s no moral equivalency between racists and Americans standing up to defy hate and bigotry. The president of the United States should say so.”

His sentiments were echoed by one of Trump’s rival Republican presidential candidates, Jeb Bush, who said in a statement: “This is a time for moral clarity, not ambivalence. I urge President Trump to unite the country, not parse the assignment of blame for the events in Charlottesville.

“For the sake of our country, he must leave no room for doubt that racism and hatred will not be tolerated or ignored by his White House.”

Mitt Romney, the party’s nominee in 2012, said the president was wrong to point to blame “on many sides”, tweeting: “One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes.”

Steve Stivers of Ohio, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is responsible for keeping Republican control of the House, vented in a statement: “I don’t understand what’s so hard about this. White supremacists and Neo-Nazis are evil and shouldn’t be defended.”

His Senate counterpart, Cory Gardner of Colorado, said at a town hall of Trump: “What he did today goes back on what he said yesterday and that’s unacceptable. The president was wrong to do that.”

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida also called out Trump, tweeting: “Mr. President, you can’t allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of blame. They support idea which cost nation & world so much pain.”

Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio and Justin Amash of Michigan were among others who tweeted their disapproval, and Congressman Will Hurd of Texas went on CNN to say that Trump should apologise for his statements.

However, many in Trump’s party restrained themselves from criticizing Trump by name. The two top Republicans in the House of Representatives both offered broad criticisms of bigotry. Speaker Paul Ryan said on Twitter: “We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.”

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted: “Saturday’s violence and tragic loss of life was a direct consequence of the hateful rhetoric & action from white supremacists demonstrating.”

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Ryan has been critical of Trump in the past. During the 2016 election he said comments Trump made about federal judge Gustavo Curiel were “the textbook definition of a racist comment”. But the Wisconsin Republican insisted he would still vote for Trump at the time.

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York went a bit further, telling Newsday: “These two sides are not equal. They are different. I would add, though, that it is not right to suggest that President Trump is wrong for acknowledging the fact that criminals on both sides showed up for the purpose of being violent. That particular observation is completely true.”

There was one GOP defender of the president. Former professional pundit and RNC spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany took to Twitter to say: “President @realDonaldTrump once again denounced hate today. The GOP stands behind his message of love and inclusiveness!”

Trump’s press conference also drew praise from David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who was one of the protesters in Charlottesville on Saturday. Duke tweeted : “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa.”

The president’s remarks were, according to senior aides who spoke anonymously to CNN and NBC, not planned and surprised members of his staff who had hoped he would stick to talking about infrastructure.

At the site where civil rights activist Heather Heyer died in downtown Charlottesville, mounds of flowers and chalked messages of remembrance now fan out on the road. Many who had gathered on Tuesday night said they had come to expect such divisive, off the cuff remarks.

Diane Townes, a 62-year-old African American working in education, said the comments were another example of Trump “shaming the victims”.

“Pouting and blaming is not the way to show an example to young people,” she said. “He opened the gateway to this with his own gestures during the campaign.”

Mike Townes, Diane’s son, had heard the comments on the radio minutes before arriving at the memorial site.

“I’m actually glad he’s saying it,” Townes said. “It is showing this country who he truly is. He represents the people who came to my community as supremacists. David Duke was right about him.”

Eric Gilchrist, another mourner at the memorial, said: “We know that he is selfish and vain, but now I worry he is a sociopath, too. He needs to leave office.”