When The Wt.House Condemns Racism/Home Grown Terrorism But Their President Doesn't
Donald Trump's response to violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia has attracted widespread criticism.
At the weekend thousands of far-right protestors congregated in the city for a controversial march dubbed "Unite the Right."
They were met by counter-protestors who tried to prevent the rally from progressing through the city, with violence eventually breaking out between the opposing groups.
A 32-year-old woman who was a part of the anti-fascist protest died after a car rammed into a crowd of people, injuring 19 other people. The car was driven by a suspected white supremacist.
The incident has been widely condemned by many American politicians but although President Trump condemned the violence, which he apportioned "on many sides", he ignored accusations that far-right groups were in favour of him and his policies.
This came after the President had failed to specifically criticise white supremacists, instead choosing to blame "many sides" in the conflict.
His ignorance of the question posed by the reporters was lambasted on social media, with many people believing that he is complicit in provoking the weekend's violence.
During his Presidential campaign, Trump used terms and phrases to condemn Muslims and immigrants that would potentially appeal to far-right groups.
On Saturday former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke was filmed in Charlottesville saying that the rally aims to "fulfil the promises of Donald Trump."
Trump's former communications director Anthony Scaramucci criticised the President and the statement, for not attacking the white nationalists.
He told ABC News:
I wouldn't have recommended that statement.
I think he would have need to have been much harsher.
That sentiment was echoed by many of Trump's fellow Republicans.
(UPI) -- James Alex Fields, Jr. -- the suspect in the automobile killing of a protester opposing a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend -- held extreme beliefs and sympathized with Nazi views, a former teacher said.
Police say Fields' gray Dodge Challenger plowed into a crowd of protesters who were counter-demonstrating against the white nationalist rallies on Saturday. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, died from her injuries.
The car then reversed and hit additional pedestrians. Photos from the scene showed it sustained severe front end damage.
Authorities later arrested Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, for the attack -- in which at least 19 others were injured.
Derek Weimer, a social studies teacher at the Randall K. Cooper High School in Kentucky -- where Fields and his mother lived prior to moving to Ohio -- said Fields held "outlandish, very radical beliefs."
"It was quite clear he had some really extreme views and maybe a little bit of anger behind them," Weimer said. "Feeling -- what's the word I'm looking for -- oppressed or persecuted, he really bought into this white supremacist thing.
"He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler."
Weimer said he and other teachers attempted to separate Fields from "that garbage" but were unsuccessful.
"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."
Fields is set to appear in court Monday.
Samantha Bloom, Fields' mother, told the Toledo Blade she did not know her son was going to Virginia for the rally. Instead, she thought he was going to an event related to President Donald Trump.
"I told him to be careful," Bloom said. "[And] if they're going to rally to make sure he's doing it peacefully ... I thought it had something to do with Trump."
In addition to the 19 injured in the car-ramming attack, police said 15 others were wounded in other incidents associated with the Charlottesville protests.
Two state troopers -- pilot Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Trooper Berke M.M. Bates, 41 -- died when their helicopter crashed near the north-central Virginia college town after monitoring the incidents Saturday.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI said they would launch investigations into the deadly demonstrations.
Sunday, the White House attempted to clarify initial remarks Trump made on the Charlottesville violence -- amid criticism that he didn't expressly renounce the white supremacy gathering.
"The president said very strongly in his statement [Saturday] that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred," the White House said. "Of course, that includes white supremacists, [Ku Klux Klan], neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together."
Saturday, both the president and first lady Melania Trump condemned the violence and hatred. Sunday, the White House denounced "white supremacists" and "all extremist groups."
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