Trump finally speaks out against right-wing groups

President condemns KKK and neo-Nazis as ‘criminals and thugs’

Donald Trump has named and condemned “repugnant” hate groups and declared “racism is evil”.

The remarks came as part of a forceful statement after deadly, race-fuelled clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the weekend.

Mr Trump’s initial statement bemoaning violence on “many sides” prompted criticism from across the political spectrum.

In a prepared statement he read during an address from the White House yesterday, he described members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as “criminals and thugs”.

“Racism is evil,” he said, singling out the hate groups as “repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans”.

“Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America,” he said.

Mr Trump also paid tribute to Heather Heyer, the woman killed when a car ploughed into a group of anti-racist protesters and said the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into her death.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said earlier the violence “does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute”.

He added: “You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America.”

Mr Trump gave his statement after meeting Mr Sessions and FBI director Christopher Wray.

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said he spoke to Mr Trump in the hours after the clashes and twice told the president “we have to stop this hateful speech, this rhetoric”.

Republicans joined Democrats in criticising the president for not calling out white nationalists.

The White House scrambled to stem the tide of criticism, dispatching aides to the Sunday talk shows and sending out a statement that more forcefully denounced the hate groups.

Alt-right leader Richard Spencer and former KKK leader David Duke attended the demonstrations.

Mr Duke told reporters the white nationalists were working to “fulfil the promises of Donald Trump”.

Mr Trump’s initial comments drew praise from the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, which wrote: “Trump comments were good. He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us.”

The website had been promoting the Charlottesville demonstration as part of its Summer of Hate edition.

Picture: Getty Images. Matthew Heinbach of the white nationalist Traditionalist Workers’ Party shouting at journalists gathered outside the General District Court building in Charlottesville, Virginia.