FBI probes rally violence
Trump criticized for tepid response to far- right
US authorities on Sunday are investigating the outbreak of violence in Virginia following a white nationalist rally that killed one person and injured more than 30, presenting US President Donald Trump with a major domestic challenge.
The violence in the Southern college town of Charlottesville on Saturday was widely condemned, with many politicians and activists on both the left and right also criticizing Trump, a Republican, for waiting too long to address it and when he did so, failing to explicitly condemn the white- supremacist marchers who ignited the melee.
On Sunday, however, the White House said in a statement that Trump’s remarks on Saturday condemned all forms of violence and bigotry, including neo- Nazi groups and the Ku Klux Klan ( KKK).
“The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, big- otry, and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo- Nazi, and all extremist groups,” the White House said.
“He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”
The violence has put fresh pressure on the Trump administration to take an unequivocal stand against that segment of his political base. Some rightists have claimed allegiance to him. Trump said on Saturday that there was more than one side to the Charlottesville incidents.
“We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,” he told reporters at his New Jersey golf course, without specifi cally mentioning or faulting the role of white nationalists.
Virginia police have not yet provided a motive for a man plowing a car into a crowd of people objecting to the white nationalists, but US attorneys and the Federal Bureau of In- vestigation have opened a civil rights investigation into the crash, an FBI fi eld offi ce said.
Four people have been arrested, including James Fields, a 20- year- old white man from Ohio who is being held in jail on suspicion of crashing the car. The vehicle killed a 32- yearold woman and injured 19 people, fi ve of them critically.
Federal authorities were also looking into a helicopter crash on Saturday that killed two Virginia state policemen aiding eff orts to quell the clashes.
Earlier on Sunday, before the White House statement, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House adviser, appealed on Twitter for Americans to “be one country united.”
She also posted, “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo- Nazis.”