Republicans, they say, may be trying to goad Democrats into talking about hot-button issues that fire up the GOP base more than they energize liberal voters. These Democratic pollsters and message crafters say that staying focused on Trump’s claim that “many sides” were at fault in Charlottesville is more productive than lingering on the question of whether to take down Confederate monuments, in most cases…

The question of how to address Confederate monuments in the Capitol appeared to initially split the two top congressional Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California made a full-throated call for removing them, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York downplayed the issue while accusing Trump and Bannon of “trying to divert attention away from” their own stances on white supremacist groups.