Responding to Hate

Three days after a young woman died and dozens were injured in violence between white supremacist protesters and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, a furor has erupted over President Trump’s handling of the situation.

The president faced withering criticism immediately after the August 12 violence for blaming “many sides” and not denouncing the white supremacist groups that marched against the proposed removal of a Confederate statue from a Charlottesville park.

Two days later, Trump did denounce the Ku Klux Klan (K.K.K.) and other white supremacist groups involved with the rally.

“Racism is evil,” Trump said Monday. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

But he reversed course again Tuesday, during a combative exchange with reporters at Trump Tower in New York and once again spread the blame for the tragedy.

“I think there is blame on both sides,” Trump said. “You had a group on one side that was bad. You had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say that. I’ll say it right now.”

Trump’s latest remarks drew immediate and widespread criticism, not only from Democrats but from Republicans too. 

Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called white supremacy “repulsive” and said “there can be no moral ambiguity.” 

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, tweeted: “Blaming ‘both sides’ for #Charlottesville?! No.” 

And Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said white nationalists in Charlottesville were “100% to blame” and took Trump to task for suggesting otherwise.

“We can not allow this old evil to be resurrected,” Rubio said on Twitter moments after Trump’s remarks. 

The violence in Charlottesville, which is home to the University of Virginia, was sparked by a demonstration by white nationalists and neo-Nazis over the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The rally on Saturday quickly exploded into racial taunting, shoving, and outright brawling, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency and the National Guard to join the police in clearing the area.

Those skirmishes mostly resulted in cuts and bruises. But after the rally was dispersed, a 20-year-old Ohio man drove a car directly into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19. Heyer was among hundreds of counter-protesters demonstrating against the white supremacist rally.

The driver of the car, James Alex Fields Jr., an alleged Nazi sympathizer, was charged with second-degree murder, among other crimes. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the fatal attack “domestic terrorism” and said, “You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought.”

The battle in Charlottesville is just one example of how the fight over the meaning and legacy of the Civil War is still playing out more than 150 years later. 

The removal of Confederate monuments has also stirred up anger in cities like New Orleans and in several Southern states. On Monday evening, protesters in Durham, N.C., toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier.

However, experts say the forces behind the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville are deeper than the Confederate statues that have become flash points. Experts on hate groups say organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis have been emboldened since the election of President Trump. David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, told reporters on Saturday that the protesters were “going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump” to “take our country back.”

Trump earned some praise for his earlier statement in which he clearly condemned the hate groups for their role in the violence. But his later statements left many critics saying that white supremacist groups would feel empowered by the president’s response to Charlottesville.

“The white supremacist movement has been emboldened,” says Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks hate groups. She adds, “The president absolutely has a responsibility in all this.”

With reporting by Carl Stoffers and The New York Times.