Aides rush to Trump’s defense
Politicians on both sides urge the president to speak more forcefully against hate groups
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.» A man accused of plowing a car into a crowd of activists here — killing one person and injuring 19 — long sympathized with Nazi views and had stood with a group of white supremacists hours before Saturday’s bloody crash.
The alleged driver, James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old who traveled to Virginia from Ohio, had espoused extremist ideals at least since high school, according to Derek Weimer, a history teacher.
“It was obvious that he had this fascination with Nazism and a big idolatry of Adolf Hitler,” Weimer said. “He had white supremacist views. He really believed in that stuff.”
The White House on Sunday sought to quell criticism of President Trump’s failure to denounce by name the white supremacists behind the spate of violence in Charlottesville, a response that associates said was based largely on Trump’s own read of the hate-fueled melee with counterprotesters.
In a statement, and through aides appearing on Sunday talk shows, the White House defended Trump’s general public condemnation Saturday of the events that led to three deaths and dozens of injuries in the picturesque college town in Virginia.
“Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups,” the White House said in a brief statement, elaborating on Trump’s remarks from his golf club here
Saturday in which he decried an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” but did not explicitly call out any party for blame.
Later Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence, during a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia, spoke out far more forcefully than Trump had the day before, saying: “We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo Nazis or the KKK. These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”
The Justice Department, meanwhile, faced continuing questions Sunday about why it took Attorney General Jeff Sessions as long as it did Saturday to announce a hate-crime investigation and why the FBI has not labeled a deadly car-ramming incident Saturday as an act of “domestic terrorism.”
Sessions did not announce that the department would open a civil rights investigation until nearly 11 p.m. Saturday night, after Democratic and Republican lawmakers called for the action. It gave no indication of how broad that investigation will be.
Sunday's White House efforts did little to tamp down criticism, including from many Republicans, who said Trump had missed an opportunity for moral leadership and to distance himself from white nationalist groups that embraced his presidency.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on “Fox News Sunday” that Trump needs to “correct the record here.”
“These groups seem to believe they have a friend in Donald Trump in the White House, and I would urge the president to dissuade that,” Graham said.
National security adviser H.R. McMaster, among the Trump officials to fan out on the public affairs shows, said on NBC's “Meet the Press” that Trump was committed “to bring all Americans together.”
“I'm sure you will hear more from the president about this,” McMaster said.
Aides said Trump would continue to get updates on events in Charlottesville, but it was unclear what other steps the White House might take. Trump stayed out of public view and remained uncharacteristically silent on Twitter through Sunday afternoon.
When the chaos subsided late Saturday, a young woman and two state police officers, who had crashed in a helicopter, were dead, and many more were hurt. As of Saturday evening, the car's impact had left five people in critical condition and another 14 injured at the University of Virginia Medical Center. By Sunday, 10 were in good condition and nine had been discharged. At least a dozen more were treated after being injured in street brawls.
A viral recording captured the scene: A sedan and a minivan rolled to a stop in a road packed with activists. Suddenly, a 2010 Dodge Challenger smashed into the back of the sedan, shoving tons of metal into the crowd as bodies were launched through the air. The Dodge then rapidly reversed, hitting yet more people.
Fields, now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation, was arrested shortly after and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and another count related to the hit-and-run, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled for a Monday arraignment.
Brian Moran, Virginia secretary of public safety, said this of Fields: “He was a terrorist to do what he did.”
Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, about 15 miles southwest of Toledo, records show. Both family and acquaintances described him as quiet and, often, solitary.
His father was killed by a drunk driver five months before the boy's birth, according to an uncle who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Fields's dad left him money that the uncle kept in a trust until Fields reached adulthood.
“When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him,” the uncle said.
Fields, he said, grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, where he'd been raised by a single mother, Samantha Bloom, who was a paraplegic. The uncle, who saw Fields mostly at family gatherings, described his nephew as “not really friendly, more subdued.”
Fields joined the Army in late summer 2015, but remained on active duty for less than four months, according to online records from the Department of Defense. It's unclear why he served so briefly.
Fields's mother told The Associated Press on Saturday that she didn't talk to him about his political views. He'd mentioned to her that he was going to a rally, but Bloom said they never discussed the details.
“I didn't know it was white supremacists,” she said. “I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a supremacist.”
Richard B. Spencer, a leader in the white supremacist movement who coined the term “alt-right,” said he didn't know Fields but had been told he was a member of Vanguard America, which bills itself as the “Face of American Fascism.” In a statement tweeted Saturday night, the group denied any connection to Fields.
Fields has been accused of killing Heather D. Heyer, 32, a Charlottesville resident who was there Saturday to stand against bigotry and hatred, her mother and friends said.
Civil rights leaders and other activist groups not only urged Trump to speak out more forcefully Sunday but also to fire White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and others whom they accused of having connections to the white national groups. Bannon formerly ran the right-wing Breitbart News and advocated for what he calls the “altright” movement.
Tom Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser, who has been in direct contact with Charlottesville authorities, repeatedly praised the president on CNN for not naming the groups involved and instead focusing on an overarching call for Americans to love one another.
Bossert said that people “on both sides” showed up in Charlottesville “looking for trouble” and that he wouldn't assign blame for the death of a counterprotester on either group, although he said the president would like to see “swift justice” for the victim.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo said on CBS News that the president was “frankly, pretty unambiguous” in responding to the violence. He added: “When someone marches with a Nazi flag, that is unacceptable, but I think that's what the president's saying.”
Among those critical of Trump on Sunday morning was Anthony Scaramucci, the president's short-lived former communications director, who said on ABC's “This Week” that he believed Trump “needed to be much harsher as it related to the white supremacists and the nature of that.” Scaramucci's White House stint lasted only 10 days.
Sen. Cory Gardner, RColo., among the growing number of lawmakers critical of Trump's statement, appeared on CNN's “State of the Union” and urged the president to speak out directly on the issue and “call this white supremacism, white nationalism evil.”