Anti-hate crowd outnumbers supremacists
A year after Charlottesville, Trump condemns ‘all types of racism’
Large crowds turned out Sunday to denounce racism as a small contingent of white supremacists gathered for a rally in a park across from the White House — a size disparity that was heartening to many, but belied deep fears over rising racial divisions across the country.
WASHINGTON — Marching shoulder-toshoulder in the nation’s capital, large crowds turned out Sunday to denounce racism as a small contingent of white supremacists gathered for a rally in a park across from the White House — a size disparity that was heartening to many, but belied deep fears over rising racial divisions.
A year after deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., became a nationwide symbol of polarization and mayhem, police braced for potential clashes as the two sides converged on the same small patch of greenery in Lafayette Square.
But they managed to keep the opposing groups apart, with a few dozen white nationalists surrounded by barricades and vastly outnumbered by police, let alone the thousands of counter-demonstrators.
Shouting matches erupted, with both sides hurling taunts and jeers, but the rallies ended at nightfall with no reports of serious injuries or violence.
President Donald Trump did not hear the chants and music that echoed in downtown Washington. He will return Monday from a summer break at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J.
As the counter-march grew in size, however, the president sent a series of tweets about the special counsel’s Russia investigation, castigating the Justice Department, the FBI and the news media.
On Saturday, the eve of the Charlottesville anniversary, Trump tweeted that he condemned “all types of racism.”
“Riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division,” he wrote. “We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!”
Last August, Trump triggered an outcry when he said “both sides” were to blame after a self-declared neo-Nazi rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman. The president also said then that many of the white nationalists were “good people.”
Some critics said the careful wording of Saturday’s tweet about “all types of racism” echoed his earlier assignment of moral equivalence to both sides, even when coupled with his call for unity. They said it was a nod to Trump supporters who believe whites are victims of reverse discrimination and need protection.
Counter-protesters began gathering in downtown Washington hours before the small group of “Unite the Right 2” marchers arrived. Elizabeth Oka, 28, a musician originally from Monrovia, Calif., said she felt morally obliged to protest against hatred in all its forms.
“If enough people do this, it sends a message,” she said. “As a citizen, it is my right and responsibility to do this.”
Garold Jacob, a 36-yearold African-American man from Brooklyn, N.Y., said he was afraid the country was moving backward in race relations. “This regression to the past cannot be allowed,” he said.
Recent polls show a majority of Americans believe race relations have worsened under Trump.
A large law enforcement presence awaited the white supremacist marchers at a Metro stop in Washington, with dozens of motorcyclemounted police forming long ranks as they emerged. Paramedics were on standby as counterprotesters in Freedom Plaza began marching toward Lafayette Square.
As the counter-protesting crowds grew larger, some ominous signs emerged. “It takes a bullet to bash fash,” an apparent reference to fascism, read a banner carried by “antifa” protesters, many clad in black and wearing masks as they marched toward the White House.
Heavily shielded by police, the white nationalist marchers, some clutching American flags, were whisked away in vans after cutting short their rally, which had been scheduled to run for two hours.
“Who’s the intolerant one?” Jason Kessler, who also had organized the original Charlottesville rally last year, asked in a speech that was nearly drowned out by hecklers. “Us? Or those who showed up to stop us from speaking?”
One of the few AfricanAmericans who has worked in the Trump White House, Omarosa Manigault Newman, accused him of being a “racist, misogynist and bigot” who used racial epithets, according to a memoir being released Tuesday.
Trump on Saturday slammed his former special assistant as “a lowlife,” and senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway dismissed her charges Sunday as untrue. On ABC’s “This Week,” Conway said she had “never a single time heard” Trump utter a racial slur, and never heard Manigault Newman complain that he had done so.
In Charlottesville, 115 miles south of Washington, more than 100 anti-racism demonstrators gathered near the site where Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was run down and killed last Aug. 12.
Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, marked the anniversary by laying flowers at a makeshift memorial.
On the Sunday TV talk shows, critics faulted Trump for helping foment racial divisiveness.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., who is AfricanAmerican, said Trump’s call for unity Saturday did not go far enough in condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis and seeking to quell racism among his followers.
“I think it’s a low bar for the president of the United States to simply say he’s against racism,” Cummings said on ABC. “He’s got to be better than that.”