A gathering of hundreds of white nationalists in Virginia took a deadly turn on Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters and killed a 37-year-old woman in a flare up of violence that challenged U.S. President Donald Trump.
The state’s governor blamed neo-Nazis for sparking the unrest in the college town of Charlottesville, where rival groups fought pitched battles using rocks and pepper spray after far-right protesters converged to demonstrate against a plan to remove a statue of Confederate war hero Robert E.Lee.
Federal authorities opened a civil rights investigation into the death.
Two Virginia policemen died in a helicopter crash nearby after assisting efforts to quell the clashes.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, declared an emergency and halted a white nationalist rally, while President Donald Trump condemned the violence.
“You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. Shame on you,” McAuliffe said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic mayor of Charlottesville, Va., Michael Signer, is pinning the blame directly on President Trump for the white nationalist protest and related violence that occurred in his city this weekend.
The blame for these events, he said, falls “right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.”
On Sunday he appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and accused Trump of intentionally courting white nationalists.
SIGNER: Well, look at the campaign he ran. I mean, look at the intentional courting, both on the one hand of all these white supremacists, white nationalists, a group like that, anti-Semitic groups, and then look on the other hand the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, you know, put to bed all those different efforts, just like we saw yesterday.
I mean, this is not hard. There’s — you know, there are two words that need to be said over and over again, domestic terrorism and white supremacy. That is exactly what we saw on display this weekend.
And we just aren’t seeing leadership from the White House. We certainly are going to see leadership from cities like Charlottesville, from mayors, from leaders all around the country left and right.
Republicans and Democrats, if there is an issue that can unite this country, that this can be a turning point for this democracy, I think it just happened right now this weekend in Charlottesville.
President Donald Trump included the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups in condemning violence after a white nationalist rally, the White House said on Sunday, the day after he was criticized on the left and right for not explicitly condemning white supremacists. On Sunday a White House spokesman stated that President Donald Trump explicitly condemns all extremist groups, including white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
“The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”
President Donald Trump drew sharp criticism on Saturday for not singling out white nationalists when he condemned the violent clashes that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides,” Trump said at a press conference. “On many sides.”
He added: “It’s been going on for a long, long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. It’s been going on for a long, long time.”He’s right too.
Trump has condemned David Duke twice before, but the anti-Trumpers and Black Lives Matter people and their sympathizers like Van Jones and Jesse Jackson only hear and see what they want to hear and see to suit their own agendas.
Trump was absolutely right in his speech. He condemned violence on both sides as both sides were guilty not just the white supremacists. Trump is trying to unify the country and was perfectly right in saying what he said.
The way I see it these white supremacists were peacefully protesting the removal of a confederate statue of Robert E. Lee in the park when the anti-protestors started in throwing rocks and pepper spray thus inciting the white supremacists so both sides are at fault.
I saw an interesting comment that explains this :
So a group pulled a permit for a free speech gathering…
and an Antifa communist group that admits on their “it’s going down” website that they exist to fight and are not interested in anything else just go there and fight, used violence to stop a group from expressing their constitutional rights…and the group that pulled the permit to express their viewpoint, but were attacked and prohibited from doing so…..must be condemned?
Yet the leftist Antifa communist group and the violent racist black lies matter groups that attacked them….are celebrated and looked upon in silence as the victims?
We are living in totalitarian times. Orwell warned us about this.
This incident reminds me of the scene in the movie “The Blues Bothers” where Jake and Elwood (John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd) come across a group of Illinois Nazis protesting on a bridge. When they ask a cop what’s going on he replies, “The Illinois Nazi Party won their right in court to demonstrate so now they’re holding up traffic.” To which Belushi replies “I hate Illinois Nazis” and they ram their car through the group sending them over the bridge and into the river below.
Only in this instance a supporter of the white supremacists ran his car into the anti-protestors and killed a woman.
I’m not siding with either side, but I’m sick and tired of these radicals trying to erase anything associated with the south and the civil war in the name of racism by erasing street names and taking down statues and banning the confederate flag. This is all part of our history
This is all part of our history and like it or not should not be eradicated like it never existed. These people like the mayor of Charlottesville and Van Jones and Jesse Jackson and their sympathizers only see one side. They are trying to associate Trump with these people and nothing could be further from the truth like everything the left stands for today. After Trump gave his speech a reporter could be heard shouting out to Trump that the reason he didn’t condemn the white supremacist group was
After Trump gave his speech a reporter could be heard shouting out to Trump that the reason he didn’t condemn the white supremacist group was because he needs their vote. That is a typical leftist biased position while nothing could be further from the truth. It’s going to get worse now ANTIFA WILL SEEK REVENGE! and they’ll make the excuse that the Right started it first.
FUNNY how they are now taking the moral high ground. It’s like a bully who punches you every day and then one day you turn around and hit back: “Hey, why the hate man? Cool it. You are so violent!”
Groups that gather and protest something they consider racist/discriminating or a violation of their constitutional rights, need to stand in front of a mirror. There, before them stands the image of a person that is just as guilty as those they want to silence.