Trump condemns 'white supremacists,' other extremists behind deadly Virginia rallies

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News


https://i.imgur.com/y9msNOr.jpg

President Trump specifically condemns “white supremacists” and other extremist groups as forces behind the deadly protests and counter-protests this weekend in Virginia, a White House spokesperson said Sunday.

"The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together,” the spokesperson said from Trump’s private golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

Trump was criticized by leading Democrats and Republicans for not singling out white supremacists in his comments in the immediate aftermath of the deadly clashes Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.

Heather Heyer was killed Saturday by a car that plowed into a crowd of protesters in the city’s downtown and that was allegedly driven by a white supremacist supporter. And two state troopers were killed when their helicopter, which was providing aerial surveillance of protests, crashed.

Trump made his comments before the alleged driver, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., was identified.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," the president said. "It has been going on for a long time in our country -- not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. “It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America."

Trump also called for a study of the situation, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday night announced a civil rights investigation into the events surrounding the “Unite the Right” rally.

Still, lawmakers were saying Sunday that Trump should have been more forceful in his condemnation of the white supremacists behind the rally. The protests were in response to a statue of Robert E. Lee being removed.

On Saturday, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, also a Trump rival in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, tweeted: “Very important for the nation to hear describe in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted that Trump must “speak out against the poisonous resurgence of white supremacy. There are not 'many sides' here, just right and wrong."

Hours before the White House statement Sunday, Ivanka Trump, a daughter of the president and a White House adviser, tweeted: “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazis. We must all come together as Americans -- and be one country UNITED. #Charlottesville.”

Trump also got support before the White House release from Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and another Trump rival in last year’s GOP presidential primary.

“Donald Trump, I thought, was very explicitly clear in condemning what happened,” he said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” “He will never satisfy those who hate his every word.”

[RBP]

I am pretty clear on what happened. This loose collection of white nationalist types gathered to protest the statue and what they saw as a move to the left in American society. The police did not keep the group separated and antifa types staged an aggressive and violent counter-protest. Then one nutbag drove a car in the antifa crowd.

Take away. The car driver is a murderer and should be put away. The white nationalists had a right to protest and the police should have provided them that opportunity but failed. The antifa went across the legal line to incite and cause violence as they have repeatedly throughout the country with little condemnation; they should be blamed, stopped, and arrsted. Part of the reason I am certain the antifa incited the violence is because the cause of the clashes have not been reported by the main stream media. That answers the question.

Bottom line, Trump's statement was appropriate.

We should strongly condemn the principles of white supremacy, but protect their right to say it. We should strongly condemn the antifa and stop tolerating their violent tactics.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Very well said :thumbsup:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Virginia Kruta - Independent Journal Review


https://i.imgur.com/ZlLzh5p.jpg

On Saturday afternoon, a man with white supremacist ties plowed his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters. One woman was killed, and more than two dozen were injured.

As news of the incident quickly spread, some took issue with the fact that the White House hadn't come out immediately and labeled it a terrorist action.

Mike Huckabee raised the point that it wasn't always advisable for the President of the United States to jump to conclusions before all of the evidence had been compiled, but that didn't stop former Attorney General Eric Holder from calling him out anyway:

http://i.imgur.com/B9VsfzD.png

But Jay Caruso of the Dallas Morning News was ready for him:

http://i.imgur.com/HjKYUTb.png

Caruso was referring to the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood committed by admitted Jihadist and Army Psychiatrist Nidal Hasan. The Daily Beast reported:


As U.S. Army psychiatrist turned jihadi Nidal Hasan finally goes on trial for shooting 13 fellow soldiers to death at Fort Hood, here is what the government continues to classify the 2009 attack:

“Workplace violence.”

In what might be termed the audacity of nope, the government has declined to call this al Qaeda–inspired mass murder an act of terrorism because to do so would be “unfair to the victims.”

The official reasoning is that it would jeopardize the case because, as stated in a Pentagon memo, “defense counsel will argue that Major Hasan cannot receive a fair trial because a branch of government has indirectly declared that Major Hasan is a terrorist—that he is criminally culpable."

Because the shooting was classified as “workplace violence” rather than an act of terror, the victims and their families were denied Purple Hearts and certain other benefits available only to service-members who were injured in combat.

Holder was serving as Attorney General at the time.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Alt-Right Activists Condemn Violence, Dispute Mainstream Account (http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/13/alt-right-activists-condemn-violence-dispute-mainstream-account/) via Breitbart News

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I'm confused....how come when a fringe group of white supremacists do something bad, it's Trump's fault, but when a whole bunch of black people riot and burn down cities (multiple times mind you), that it wasn't Obama's fault? :confused:

[RBP]

I'm confused....how come when a fringe group of white supremacists do something bad, it's Trump's fault, but when a whole bunch of black people riot and burn down cities (multiple times mind you), that it wasn't Obama's fault? :confused:

Because one fits the liberal narrative and the other does not.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Because one fits the liberal narrative and the other does not.

:doh:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Got to love MSM...and Holder :lol:

[Godfather]

Pretty shocking to see a bunch of fat white dudes in khaki pants and MAGA hats doing nazi salutes alongside armed militia in camo gear. What the fuck is wrong with these people.

[Hal-9000]

#rescuemuddy

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Pretty shocking to see a bunch of fat white dudes in khaki pants and MAGA hats doing nazi salutes alongside armed militia in camo gear. What the fuck is wrong with these people.

Same shit that is wrong with BLM

[Hikari Kisugi]

As one of them foreign types from across the pond, I'd like a bit of clarity on certain things.

From what I can understand, the protest was in relation to the removal of a statue by the town, the statue was of a Southern general from the civil war era.
Is this correct?
From my limited understand this chap wasn't a white supremacist was he?
Surely he is a somewhat important figure from American history?

Has his image been hijacked over the years? or why would the town wish to remove his statue at all?
Surely a protest by historians would have been just as appropriate?
Did the supremacists see this as a call to arms, as they need to protest against liberal blah blah, and thus turned up?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/dTGQLk3h.jpg

This is the statue in question to be removed of General Robert E. Lee (on which you can faintly still see the words "Black Lives Matter" on it when it was vandalized a few years ago). By all accounts, General Lee was a brilliant military man who served the United States military with distinction before following his home state of Virginia into the Confederacy during the US Civil War. There is nothing in history that suggests that he was a white supremacist. From Wikipedia:


Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865. A son of Revolutionary War officer Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III, Lee was a top graduate of the United States Military Academy and an exceptional officer and military engineer in the United States Army for 32 years. During this time, he served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican–American War, and served as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy.

When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command. During the first year of the Civil War, Lee served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Once he took command of the main field army in 1862 he soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning most of his battles, all against far superior Union armies. Lee's strategic foresight was more questionable, and both of his major offensives into Union territory ended in defeat. Lee's aggressive tactics, which resulted in high casualties at a time when the Confederacy had a shortage of manpower, have come under criticism in recent years. Lee surrendered his entire army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. By this time, Lee had assumed supreme command of the remaining Southern armies; other Confederate forces swiftly capitulated after his surrender. Lee rejected the proposal of a sustained insurgency against the Union and called for reconciliation between the two sides.

After the war, Lee supported President Andrew Johnson's program of Reconstruction and intersectional friendship, while opposing the Radical Republican proposals to give freed slaves the vote and take the vote away from ex-Confederates. He urged them to rethink their position between the North and the South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the nation's political life. Lee became the great Confederate hero of the War, a postwar icon of the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy" to some. But his popularity grew even in the North, especially after his death in 1870. Barracks at West Point built in 1962 are named after him.

The Civil War and the Confederacy are a HUGE and important part of this country's history. So are the people that served on both sides. Statues and symbols and names that have anything to do with the Confederacy are being removed and sanitized because the world needs to become a Safe Space because the poor delicate snowflakes as well as blacks that align themselves with factions like Black Lives Matter are duly 'offended' by anything that even hints at the Confederacy. That's why it is practically verboten to have a Confederate flag symbol anywhere without that person displaying said image being deemed a racist, even if the only reason you are flying it or displaying it is because someone in your family history served in the army of the Confederate Sates of America.

[Hal-9000]

And if I could add something Hikari, in the late 1700's and 1800's a lot of people were white supremacists. At that time in North American history bigotry was accepted and not deemed as a negative thing to the majority of the population. With the exception of some liberal minded northerners (and some southerners as well), and the black population, slavery was part of the economy in addition to being part of the public mindset of the time.

I realize you're probably aware of this historic dynamic already. It's difficult to delineate between an actual racist of that time and someone who thinks black people are less than a white person, because the societal norm skewed towards people owning other people based on color. So was General Lee a racist or white supremacist? Probably, but the reasons behind his belief may be more environmental based than personal.

[RBP]

Pretty shocking to see a bunch of fat white dudes in khaki pants and MAGA hats doing nazi salutes alongside armed militia in camo gear. What the fuck is wrong with these people.

This is exactly the problem with this whole issue. What you just said (and Trump's statements) is all that's being discussed. Not to mention that they were not even close to a homogeneous group.

The fact is, whether you agree or disagree, they have a right to be heard. What is FAR more offensive and dangerous than the assumed ideology is that we have ignored and accepted, over and over again, the notion that speech can be suppressed violently if we disagree. Have you seen a single condemnation of Antifa (many of which were paid to be there) or BLM tactics to respond with violence?!? Governor McAuliffe KNEW they were being brought in from the outside. We know this because he made public statements telling people not to come to Charlottesville.

Trump capitulated today. I would have liked to have heard him mention that counter protesters do not have the right to be violent just because they disagree and will also be dealt with aggressive law enforcement.

[RBP]

And while you're at it, find out what the largest category of hate groups is in the US. Here's a hint... it's not white people.

[RBP]

Disgusting. This is "progress"? Why is no one in jail??

<iframe width='480' height='290' scrolling='no' src='https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/3e136ecc-8159-11e7-9e7a-20fa8d7a0db6' frameborder='0' webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

The statue, which depicts a uniformed and armed Confederate soldier, stood atop an engraved pedestal that read, “In memory of ‘the boys who wore the gray.’ ” It was erected in 1924 and stood 15-feet tall...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/14/protesters-in-north-carolina-topple-confederate-statue-following-charlottesville-violence/?utm_term=.ae90fab6cc55

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Pax Dickinson - CEO, Counter.Fund (for The Daily Caller)


https://i.imgur.com/aNKjsLf.jpg

As an attendee of the Unite The Right rally and scheduled speaker, I have serious questions about the actions of Virginia police on Saturday. It appears that police created a dangerous situation which was entirely avoidable. I will explain in detail the facts of what happened.

One does not need to support any of the positions of the alt-right to be concerned about what this means about the state of free speech in America.

https://i.imgur.com/nTkkLbu.jpg

This is Lee Park in Charlottesville, as it was laid out for Saturday’s rally. The red lines indicate the position of metal barriers. The rally had a legally issued permit, revoked by the city a week before but reinstated by a Federal judge the day before the rally. The barricade layout was as police described to organizers it would be, and speakers received a briefing on this the day before. Virginia State Police commandeered the north side of the park. No one was allowed in that half of the park except a few rally people handling the audio equipment. Police also controlled the streets around the park on three sides: Jefferson St. to the north, 1st St. to the west, and 2nd St. to the east.

Market St. to the south was an uncontrolled chaos full of antifa. The south end of the park is a small hill. Exits 1 & 2 were both short concrete stairways. Speaker and rally attendees arrived via Market St. from the east, protected by police.

When I arrived I was funneled into Exit 1 and up into Pen 1. Shortly after I was able to get around the State Police dividing the pens to the south and made my way into Pen 2, which contained the audio setup for those planned to speak at the rally.

Both exit stairs were defended by rally attendees with shields, and antifa skirmished with them at each stairway. Contact between the two sides was isolated to those positions and relatively under control from my vantage point. Within Pen 2 people felt relatively relaxed and we chatted and socialized while waiting for noon for the rally proper to start.

Shortly after all rally attendees were present in the park, word began to spread that a State of Emergency had been declared, presumably by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. At my position in Pen 2, people were confused by this. It seemed unnecessary and preemptive since the rally seemed fairly well under control at this point. It was about 11:30 a.m., and the rally was not scheduled to start until noon.

After some minutes of confusion and rumors, Virginia State Police got on a loudspeaker and announced that we had been declared an unlawful assembly. We were instructed to leave the park, and told that anyone refusing to do so would be arrested.

Attendees began attempting to leave via exits 1 & 2 and were set upon by antifa as they attempted to do so. After a quick consultation, a small group of rally headliners and attendees decided to engage in civil disobedience and get ourselves arrested, myself included.

We told our security teams to leave the park to avoid arrest, while Virginia State Police began forming a shield wall at the north end of the park. The pens were nearly empty at this point, except for those planning to be arrested and a few people still attempting to run the antifa gauntlet at the stairs to escape from the park.

The VSP shield wall began advancing south, and we linked arms and held our ground. We told police we refused to leave and planned to engage in civil disobedience. We were respectful and informed them we would not resist arrest but we refused to leave the park willingly.

The shield wall advanced on us and began to shove our line. We stood firm and held our ground for a few minutes. Police on the line did not say a word and refused to arrest us while shoving with their shields and swinging them at us.

After a few minutes of shoving, our line was pepper-sprayed from a cop behind the police shield wall, and our resistance crumbled. Being near the end of the line, I was not sprayed directly. The spray drifted in the wind onto my arms and face but my eyes remained clear.

We retreated through the western barricade but police on 1st St. would not let us onto the street forced us to retreat south. We’re pushed through the barricade at the south end of 1st St. and onto Market St., which was lined on both sides with mobs of screaming antifa with no police presence whatsoever.

We ran west on Market St, running a gauntlet of antifa throwing bottles, sticks, and rocks. Two people I believe were nearly blinded by pepper spray. I followed them closely but then dropped back as the crowd hurled everything they had at another protest headliner, luckily missing with most of it.

After running a few blocks west, we reached the intersection of Market and Preston, where a shield wall had been set up by rally attendees on a grass strip alongside Market St. Casualties were being tended there, including multiple heavily bleeding scalp wounds and pepper spray injuries. Luckily all the injuries seemed superficial except one man with a very bad head injury who seems to be going in and out of consciousness.

From there the bulk of the rally attendees were able to march north and eventually reached the relative safety of MacIntyre Park, about two miles away, but many had been scattered throughout the city by the chaos of the dispersal.

At that point the police had completely lost control of the city. The State of Emergency order meant that any public gathering was de facto illegal, but antifa were still allowed to roam freely bearing weapons and attacking people. This chaos ultimately led directly to the vehicular incident that killed a woman and badly injured more than a dozen others.

My conclusions are that police wanted this to happen. It’s clear that VSP had specific orders to drive us out of the park to the south, into the teeth of violent armed antifa counter-protesters.

Police could have easily separated the barricades and removed all rally participants to the north, away from antifa and into empty streets fully controlled by law enforcement. We were driven into a hostile situation intentionally. It’s impossible not to believe that the authorities issuing these orders knew exactly what would happen and that they wanted rally attendees to be harmed and possibly killed.

There was an assumption that police would allow a retreat to the north in the event of a rally cancellation, no one imagined the police would choose to facilitate a clearly violent situation and force the two sides into uncontrolled contact. This looks like it was done with the intent to deny civil rights of a legal protest, in direct defiance of a federal court order. We were set up and trapped, then pushed into a kill zone full of hostile armed enemies. Every injury at this event was due to to the nonsensical withdrawal order of the police.

National Guard (or possibly feds? It’s unclear) had a viewing post atop the funeral home at the corner of 1st and Market, equipped with several cameras. That video will corroborate my story if released.

I got out relatively unscathed, my relatively mild (but still very painful) pepper spraying was my only injury. I was lucky, but many others were not so lucky. Serious questions need to be asked about who gave this order and why the rally participants were not extracted to the north, away from antifa. The opposing sides could have been kept apart very easily, but police chose not to keep the sides apart.

Governor Terry McAuliffe and the Virginia State Police have blood on their hands, and they must be held to account for that.

[Hikari Kisugi]

I still don't get why they were removing the statue?
The guy wasn't a racist.

Surely a large population of historians, folks who reenact events, the general public should have showed up to protest its removal, instead of leaving the field open for white supremacists to hijack the cause.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

The reason is because the US is hellbent on political correctness and that includes whitewashing history

[Hikari Kisugi]

Well that's fucking retarded.

[redred]

Sames happening in Bristol, renaming some building to do with the slave trade

[KevinD]

Sames happening in Bristol, renaming some building to do with the slave trade
You lot didn't have slaves. Don't you know that only the US had slaves? Get it right mate, lol

[Godfather]

Hahaha that press conference today. Even the Fox News girl was stunned :popcorn:

Trump made some great points, the Washington thing was a great one.

[RBP]

I was screaming at at my radio today, listening to the discussion afterward.

"Trump was trying to say it was a peaceful protest, which was a lie. They were goosestepping and carrying torches. The Nazi's used to splash the torch fuel on Jews".

WHAT?

Unless you saw a demonstrator dripping torch fuel on a Jew, you are making shit up. Since you cannot identify ANY violence initiated by the protesters, that is BY DEFINITION a peaceful protest.

"Who threw the first punch is irrelevant. They is no moral equivalency here"

WHAT?

Saying there is no moral equivalency is BY DEFINITION making a moral equivalency argument. And the first punch completely matters. Just because you hate white supremacists does not mean they can be violently interfered with in a lawful protest. Which is AGAIN a moral equivalency argument!

And the simple fact that you can only cite goosestepping and torches as evidence of violence makes it clear that the protesters initiated NONE.

[Godfather]

Some behind the scenes footage from Monday. Full vid at bottom of the link:

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/08/vice-news-just-released-chilling-must-watch-footage-from-behind-charlottesvilles-battle-lines/

[RBP]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-alt-left-fact-check.html

While the NY Times uses this article to minimize the Antifa issue, there is direct support for my position.


“What about the ‘alt-left’ that came charging at, as you say, the ‘alt-right’?” [Trump] asked. “Let me ask you this: What about the fact they came charging — that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do.”

Antifa, or anti-fascist activists, certainly used clubs and dyed liquids against the white supremacists, according to the New York Times reporters Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Hawes Spencer, who covered the violence in Charlottesville.

Nowhere in the article does the NY Times suggest that the protesters initiated any violence except for the car slamming a different crowd at a different location. You can bet that if there was any evidence of violence initiated by the actual protesters, it would have been covered by now. The Times attempt to equate the Antifa violence against peaceful protesters with the car murder misses the point.

The article repeats my point by minimizing Antifa by saying there is no moral equivalency here, but then spending the rest of the article making a moral equivalency argument.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


https://i.imgur.com/LkLvPz4.jpg

The White House told allies Tuesday that President Trump was “entirely correct” to blame “both sides” for the protest violence in Charlottesville, fighting back at critics of his response, Fox News has learned.

A memo of talking points obtained by Fox News stated that during his remarks in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday, the president was “entirely correct – both sides of the violence in Charlottesville acted inappropriately, and bear some responsibility.”

The memo also stated that Trump “with no ambiguity” condemned the hate groups that descended upon Charlottesville for the “Unite the Right” rally, and added the president has been “a voice for unity and calm,” and that he’s “taking swift action to hold violent hate groups accountable.”

It ended by saying both leaders and the media “should join the president in trying to unite and heal our country rather than incite more division.” The memo was distributed to allies of the White House in an effort to try to get conservatives on board to defend Trump.

While speaking to the media Tuesday during what were supposed to be brief remarks without questions from the press, Trump declared that “there is blame on both sides” for the deadly violence that took place on Saturday. He also said “there are two sides to a story.”

Placing blame “on many sides” was Trump’s initial response to Saturday’s events, but two days later, the president specifically condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

After Trump’s reiteration Tuesday that both protesters on the far left and far right were to blame, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke tweeted, “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth.”

White House officials apparently were caught off guard by his remarks Tuesday. Trump had signed off on a plan to not answer questions from journalists during an event touting infrastructure policies, according to a White House official speaking to The Associated Press. Once behind the lectern and facing the cameras, Trump overruled the decision.

Trump's advisers had hoped Tuesday’s remarks might quell a crush of criticism from Republicans, Democrats and business leaders. But the president's retorts Tuesday suggested he had been a reluctant participant in that cleanup effort and renewed questions about why he seemed to struggle to unequivocally condemn white nationalists.

Members of his own Republican Party have pressured him to be more vigorous in criticizing bigoted groups, and business leaders have begun abandoning a White House jobs panel in response to his comments.

When asked to explain his Saturday comments about Charlottesville, Trump looked down at his notes and again read a section of his initial statement that denounced bigotry but did not single out white supremacists. He then tucked the paper back into his jacket pocket.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

http://i.imgur.com/zYoTUIQ.jpg

[Godfather]

This redditor is absolutely crushing the folks claiming the counter-protestors had no permit or reason to be there, and explains pretty clearly that it was a white nationalist rally they were there to protest :lol:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/6u1gw8/redditor_provides_proof_that_charlottesville/?st=J6FAT5NY&sh=bf2054b1

[Hal-9000]

http://i.imgur.com/zYoTUIQ.jpg

History is written by the victors - Winston Churchill

Not sure if it applies to this story, but it is one of the most accurate statements made about human history.

[Godfather]

The Bay took down a tiny plaque commemorating Jefferson Davis' stay in Canada :lol: :-k

It was dedicated by a group called the Daughters of Confederacy in 1957 to commemorate Davis' stay in Montreal after being bailed from prison in 1867. That seems like a long time after to make a plaque. Wonder if people had opinions on it back then? That'd be interesting to try and look into.

[RBP]

This redditor is absolutely crushing the folks claiming the counter-protestors had no permit or reason to be there, and explains pretty clearly that it was a white nationalist rally they were there to protest :lol:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/6u1gw8/redditor_provides_proof_that_charlottesville/?st=J6FAT5NY&sh=bf2054b1Okay. And? I'm not sure why those are meaningful distinctions.

[Hal-9000]

next?

http://i.imgur.com/aBMg79N.jpg