PRESSURE GROWS ON TRUMP TO COME DOWN HARD ON WHITE SUPREMACISTS
▶ Woman’s death at far-right rallies has Republican Party figures joining call for president to condemn racists. Rob Crilly reports
The mayor of Charlottesville blamed Donald Trump for the hate swirling through America as pressure grew yesterday for the president to denounce the white supremacists who brought violence to his town.
Police continue to investigate the death of a woman, 32, who was killed when a car ploughed into a crowd of anti-racist protesters.
At least 26 people were taken to hospital at the end of a second day of trouble in Charlottesville, where far-right protesters gathered to demonstrate against the removal of a statue commemorating a Confederate Civil War general.
Mr Trump faces growing calls from his own Republican Party to go further in his condemnation after blaming “many sides” for the violent clashes.
Rivals accuse him of protecting the far-right elements who helped to propel him to power.
Yesterday morning, HR McMaster, the president’s national security adviser, said the violence amounted to terrorism.
“Any time that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it is terrorism,” Mr McMaster said.
Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, said: “The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice.”
And in a clear rebuke to the president, Michael Signer, the mayor of Charlottesville, described it as “a terrorist attack with a car used as a weapon”.
Mr Signer said he was disgusted that white nationalists had come to his city and said it was clear that blame lay with Mr Trump and a divisive election campaign that inflamed racial prejudices last year.
“I think they made a choice in that campaign – a very regrettable one, to really go to people’s prejudices, to go to the gutter,” he said.
White nationalists, including neo-Nazis, assembled in Charlottesville on Saturday for a “Unite the Right” rally against the city’s plans to remove a statue of Gen Robert Lee.
David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and Richard Spencer, a leading figure in the “alt-right”, were among them.
Other protesters massed against them, and the day passed with clashes as pepper spray filled the air.
As the rally dispersed, a grey Dodge Charger drove at high speed into a crowd, sending bodies flying into the air. Police said the driver, James Alex Fields Jr, a 20-year-old from Ohio, was charged with second-degree murder.
The victim was named as Heather Heyer, a paralegal from Virginia.
On a fundraising website, her mother said: “She died doing what was right. My heart is broken but I am forever proud of her.”
Mr Trump, on a working vacation at his New Jersey golf club, addressed the violence at the Virginia college town on Saturday evening.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Mr Trump said. “It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. It’s been going on for a long, long time.”
Prominent Republicans were also among those who demanded a more explicit denunciation of white supremacists.
Senator Marco Rubio, who was beaten by Mr Trump in the Republican primaries, wrote on Twitter: “Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesumpremacists.”
Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey and a high-profile Trump supporter, added to the pressure. “We reject the racism and violence of white nationalists like the ones acting out in Charlottesville,” Mr Christie wrote. “Everyone in leadership must speak out.”
The spectre of the far right has hung over Mr Trump’s candidacy and White House.
He often came under fire in the campaign for his reluctance to distance himself from white supremacists and his social media team was accused of spreading racist memes.
Any time that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it is terrorism