NATION
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
East Oregonian
Trump denounces hate groups
by name two days after rally
By JONATHAN LEMIRE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Bowing to pressure from right
and left, President Donald
Trump condemned white
supremacist groups by name
on Monday, declaring “racism
is evil” after two days of public
equivocation and internal
White House debate over the
deadly race-fueled clashes in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
In a hastily arranged state-
ment at the White House,
Trump branded members
of the KKK, neo-Nazis and
white supremacists who take
part in violence as “criminals
and thugs.”
The groups are “repugnant
to everything that we hold
dear as Americans,” he said.
In his initial remarks on the
violence Saturday, Trump did
not single out the groups and
instead bemoaned violence on
“many sides.” Those remarks
prompted stern criticism from
fellow Republicans as well as
Democrats, who urged him
to seize the moral authority
of his office to condemn hate
groups.
Trump’s softer statement on
Saturday had come as graphic
images of a car plowing into a
crowd in Charlottesville were
playing continually on televi-
sion. White nationalists had
assembled in the city to protest
plans to take down a statue of
Confederate Gen. Robert E.
Lee, and counter-protesters
gathered in opposition. Fights
broke out, and then a man
drove into the opponents
of the white supremacists.
One woman was killed and
many more badly hurt. Twen-
ty-year-old James Alex Fields
Jr. of Ohio is charged with
second-degree murder and
other counts.
The president had indi-
cated to advisers before his
initial statement Saturday
that he wanted to stress a need
for law and order, which he
did. He later expressed anger
to those close to him about
what he perceived as the
media’s unfair assessment
of his remarks, believing he
had effectively denounced all
forms of bigotry, according
to outside advisers and White
House officials.
Several of Trump’s senior
advisers, including new chief
of staff John Kelly, had urged
him to make a more specific
condemnation, warning that
the negative story would not
go away and that the rising
tide of criticism from fellow
Republicans on Capitol Hill
could endanger his legisla-
Page 7A
BRIEFLY
Driver previously accused of beating mom
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The driver
charged with killing a woman at a white nationalist rally
in Charlottesville was previously
accused of beating his mother
and threatening her with a knife,
according to police records released
Monday.
Samantha Bloom, who is
disabled and uses a wheelchair,
repeatedly called police about her
son, James Alex Fields Jr., in 2010
and 2011, telling officers he was on
medication to control his temper,
James Fields Jr.
transcripts from 911 calls show.
Fields, 20, is accused of ramming
his car into a crowd of counter-protesters on Saturday in
Charlottesville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Fields, described by a former high school teacher
as an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, was
charged with second-degree murder.
A judge denied him bail Monday after the public
defender’s office said it couldn’t represent him because
a relative of someone in the office was injured in
Saturday’s protest.
Protesters topple Confederate
statue in North Carolina
Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP
People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating
against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday.
Hate-watch groups
agree rally was
largest in a decade
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump speaks about the deadly white
nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Monday in the
Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington.
tive agenda, according to two
White House officials.
Aides were dispatched
to Sunday talk shows but
struggled to explain the pres-
ident’s position. A stronger
statement was released
— but attributed only to an
unnamed spokesperson.
Tougher condemnations
began Sunday night with
Vice President Mike Pence,
traveling in South America,
declaring that “these dangerous
fringe groups have no place in
American public life.”
On Monday, Trump
had planned to interrupt his
17-day working vacation
at his New Jersey golf club
to travel to Washington for
an announcement he hoped
would showcase some tough
talk on China’s trade practices.
But by the time he arrived
at midmorning, it was clear
all other messages would be
drowned out until he said
more about Charlottesville.
Trump returned to a White
House undergoing a major
renovation. With the Oval
Office unavailable, he worked
from the Treaty Room as aides
drafted his remarks.
Reading from a tele-
prompter, he made a point of
beginning with an unrelated
plug for the strength of the
economy under his leader-
ship. Then, taking pains to
insist “as I said on Saturday,”
Trump denounced the hate
groups and called for unity.
“We must love each other,
show affection for each other
and unite together in condem-
nation of hatred, bigotry and
violence,” he said.
Trump for the first time
mentioned Heather Heyer by
name as he paid tribute to the
woman killed by the car.
At the trade event later in
the day, he was asked why
it took two days for him to
offer an explicit denunciation
of the hate groups.
“They
have
been
condemned,”
Trump
responded before criticizing
some media as “fake news.”
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CHARLOTTESVILLE,
Va. (AP) — Authorities have
not provided a crowd esti-
mate for the Saturday rally of
white nationalists in Charlot-
tesville that descended into
chaos. But two organizations
that track hate groups and
were monitoring the event
said it was the largest white
supremacist gathering in a
decade or more.
An Associated Press
reporter and photographer
who were on the scene all
day estimated the white
nationalist group at about
500 and the counterprotesters
at double that, based on
in-person observations and
photos, including some taken
from just above street level.
Southern Poverty Law
Center spokeswoman Heidi
Beirich told The Associated
Press the next-biggest white
supremacist rally her group
knew of took place in 2002
in the nation’s capital and
drew around 300 people.
Saturday was “a pretty big
deal in this world,” she said.
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Protesters in North
Carolina toppled a nearly century-old statue of a
Confederate soldier Monday at a rally against racism.
Activists in Durham brought a ladder up to the statue
and used a rope to pull down the Confederate Soldiers
Monument that was dedicated in 1924. A diverse crowd
of dozens cheered as the statue of a soldier holding a
rifle fell to the ground in front of an old courthouse
building that now houses local government offices.
Seconds after the monument fell, protesters began
kicking the crumpled bronze monument.
“I was a little bit shocked people could come here
and come together like that,” said Isaiah Wallace, who is
black.
Wallace said he watched as others toppled the statue.
He hopes other Confederate symbols elsewhere will
follow.
“I feel like this is going to send shockwaves through
the country and hopefully they can bring down other
racist symbols,” he said.
White nationalist agenda grows
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Emboldened and
proclaiming victory after a bloody weekend in Virginia,
white nationalists are planning more demonstrations to
promote their agenda following the violence.
The University of Florida said white provocateur
Richard Spencer, whose appearances sometimes stoke
unrest, is seeking permission to speak there next month.
And white nationalist Preston Wiginton had said he was
planning a “White Lives Matter” rally at Texas A&M
University in September, but the university later said it
had been canceled.
Also, a neo-Confederate group has asked the state
of Virginia for permission to rally at a monument to
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond on Sept.
16, and other events are likely.
“We’re going to be more active than ever before,”
Matthew Heimbach, a white nationalist leader, said
Monday.
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