Trump returns to Washington as criticism grows over Charlottesville response

Donald Trump arrived back in Washington on Monday amid a storm of criticism – some from prominent figures in his own party – over his decision not to directly condemn the white supremacy groups that targeted Charlottesville, Virginia, at the weekend.

The US president ignored shouted media questions about the violence as he returned to the White House from his working vacation in New Jersey for what is expected to be a one-day visit before a trip to Trump Tower in New York tonight.

“Do you condemn the actions of neo-Nazis? Do you condemn the actions of white supremacists?” Trump was asked.

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The president was expected to meet with the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and the new FBI director, Chris Wray, as well as other advisers, about the racism-fueled clashes on the streets of the city on Saturday.

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The president was expected to meet with the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and the new FBI director, Chris Wray, as well as other advisers, about the racism-fueled clashes on the streets of the city on Saturday.

But a new fault line emerged between the president and his attorney general, with Sessions telling ABC the “evil attack” in Charlottesville “does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute”.

Sessions – with whom the president has frequently clashed over the Russia inquiry in recent weeks – also went on to defend Trump, telling NBC the president had “clearly” denounced such violence and “totally opposes” the values of white supremacy organizations.

The attorney general said a more sweeping condemnatory statement released by the White House on Sunday, a day after Trump’s initial remarks, reflected the president’s views.

However, Trump, who has consistently scorned other politicians for failing to use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” in connection with global attacks, has still notably failed to describe Saturday’s events as an act of domestic terrorism.

The weekend’s violence – prompted by a white nationalist rally opposing a plan to remove from a Charlottesville park a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee – saw a 32-year-old woman who was protesting against hate groups, Heather Heyer, killed after being run over by a car. More than 30 people were injured in clashes between far-right supporters and counter-protesters. Two state police officers also died in a helicopter crash after assisting in efforts to quell the unrest.

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Twenty-year-old James Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, appeared in court on Monday morning by video link charged with the second-degree murder of Heyer, a legal assistant who had championed civil rights issues. He was denied bail at a hearing that lasted a matter of minutes and focused on the need for him to have an attorney.

Fields was photographed earlier in the day before Saturday’s violence with a neo-Nazi group and has been said to hold views sympathetic to the far right. A high school teacher said Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler and had been singled out by school officials in the ninth grade for his “deeply held, radical” convictions on race.

Meanwhile one of the US’s most high-profile African American executives quit Trump’s business advisory panel, saying: “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy”, prompting an immediate attack from the president, who tweeted: “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

It was unclear when the president would next comment on the violence amid growing pressure for him to do so from politicians of all political stripes, after his remarks on Saturday blamed bigotry on “many sides”.

Late Sunday, Trump’s vice-president spoke out against extreme groups while on a trip in Colombia. Pence said: “We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo-Nazis or the KKK. These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms,” according to a pooled report.

Trump, who has been at his New Jersey golf club on a 17-day “working vacation”, was to sign an executive action on China’s trade practices during his one-day return to Washington.

But he is likely to find it impossible to escape questions over the far right and Charlottesville.

The White House statement made on Sunday had attempted to stem the damage caused by his earlier remarks amid a storm of criticism by leading Republicans such as senators Marco Rubio and Cory Gardner and New Jersey’s governor Chris Christie, as well as a slew of Democrats. A spokesperson said: “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 White House did not attach a name to the statement. Usually, a statement would be signed by the press secretary or another staffer; not putting a name to one eliminates an individual’s responsibility for its truthfulness and often undercuts its significance.

Senior aides were dispatched to the morning news shows, yet they struggled at times to explain the president’s position.

In the hours after the car plowed into a group of anti-racist counter-protesters on Saturday, Trump addressed the violence in broad strokes, saying that he condemned, “in the strongest possible terms, this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.”

Speaking slowly from the Bedminster golf club, Trump added: “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.”
Analysis How Charlottesville became the symbolic prize of the far right
The white supremacists Donald Trump is loath to criticise made city’s plan to remove a Confederate statue their rallying point

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Trump’s national security adviser, HR McMaster, said Sunday that he considered the attack to be terrorism.

The president’s daughter and White House aide, Ivanka Trump, tweeted Sunday morning: “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”

But her brother Donald Trump Jr took a different tack, retweeting a message from a fake account purporting to belong to the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which said: “Trump condemned hours ago. Did Obama denounce BLM [Black Lives Matter] or Antifa [anti-fascist activists]? Hillary? CNN? Double standard is driving the hate. True equality will fix it.”

Trump’s initial comments also drew praise from the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, which wrote: “Trump comments were good. He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us ... No condemnation at all.” The website had been promoting the Charlottesville demonstration as part of its “Summer of Hate”.

The Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said he had spoken to Trump in the hours after the clashes and twice told the president: “We have to stop this hateful speech, this rhetoric.” He said he urged Trump “to come out stronger” against the actions of white supremacists.

Republicans joined Democrats in criticizing the president for not specifically calling out white nationalists. Gardner, a Colorado Republican, said on NBC Sunday: “This isn’t a time for innuendo or to allow room to be read between the lines. This is a time to lay blame.”

Charlottesville’s mayor, Michael Signer, a Democrat, slammed Trump’s stance toward hate groups, saying that he hoped Trump “looks himself in the mirror and thinks very deeply about who he consorted with”.

Source:theguardian.com