DAY OF OUTRAGE
Email addresses criticism that Trump didn’t speak out forcefully enough after riot
White House in damage control mode as rallies held across U.S. to denounce violence in Virginia,
BRIDGEWATER, N.J.— White House officials, under siege over President Donald Trump’s reluctance to condemn white supremacists for the weekend’s bloody rallies in Charlottesville, Va., tried to clarify his comments Sunday, as critics in both parties intensified demands that he adopt a stronger message.
A statement Sunday — issued more than 36 hours after the protests began — condemned “white supremacists” for the violence that led to one death. It came in an email sent to reporters in the president’s travelling press pool, and was attributed to an unnamed representative.
It was not attributed directly to Trump, who often uses Twitter to communicate directly on controversial topics. It also did not single out “white supremacists” alone but instead included criticism of “all extremist groups.”
The email was sent “in response” to questions about Trump’s remarks, in which he blamed the unrest “on many sides” while speaking Saturday before an event for military veterans at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., where the president is on vacation.
“The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred,” the statement said. “Of course that includes white suprema- cists, KKK neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”
The president’s reluctance to speak out with force and moral indignation against the white nationalists who incited the most serious racial incident of his presidency elicited deep feelings of disappointment spanning the ideological spectrum.
“I think what you saw here was a real moment in our nation for our leaders to deal with this moral issue as one country, as people all over the world watched,” said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, speaking outside the home of one of the state troopers killed in a helicopter crash Saturday. Trump’s “words were not — not — what this nation needs,” McAuliffe, a Democrat, said, his voice breaking with emotion. “He needs to call out the white supremacists, he needs to call out the neo-Nazis to say these people should not be in our country.”
Charlottesville was on edge Sunday as police and residents tried to piece together how a white nationalist rally turned deadly.
Makeshift memorials dotted downtown streets where bloody brawls took place the day before. And police in riot gear stood at the ready in case of more clashes as anti-racist activists, holding signs that said, “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA.”
Rallies were taking place around the country, from Los Angeles to Miami, in support of the dozens injured in Charlottesville and the three who died: a Charlottesville woman who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd, and two state police officers whose helicopter crashed.
City officials identified the woman as Heather Heyer, 32. A memorial vigil for her was planned for Sunday evening before it was postponed because of safety concerns.
The driver — identified as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, from Ohio —was arrested and charged with seconddegree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident that ended in death.
On Sunday afternoon, angry protesters chased down one of the rally’s main organizers as he attempted to address a throng of reporters outside Charlottesville City Hall. Members of the crowd shouted “murderer” and “shame” at Jason Kessler, a blogger based in Charlottesville, as a police sniper watched from a nearby rooftop. One man spat on Kessler before he darted away with the help of a police escort.
As the White House shifted its message, the Justice Department opened a hate crimes inquiry into the violence, which included the death of Heyer. Nineteen other people were injured in the episode, which McAuliffe called “murder, plain and simple.”
Anti-racism activists also questioned why Charlottesville police, who had several weeks to prepare for the permitted rally, seemed caught off guard by events. Video clips shared on social media showed police standing by in some cases as brawls broke out in the morning before the rally was set to begin.
But McAuliffe praised police for preventing more deadly violence the previous day, saying he was told that 80 per cent of the white nationalist protesters were armed.
“You can’t stop some crazy guy who came here from Ohio and used his car as a weapon. He is a terrorist,” McAuliffe said.