Tag

#Charlottesville

3 incidents

Civil Rights
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Charlottesville: Trump's Defense of White Supremacists After the Unite the Right Rally

The August 12, 2017 Unite the Right rally drew hundreds of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, and white nationalists to Charlottesville. A rally participant drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer. Trump initially blamed 'many sides,' then under pressure condemned white supremacists, then two days later reinstated the 'very fine people on both sides' framing in a combative press conference. The statements were widely understood as a signal of presidential sympathy to white nationalist movements.

Sources
5
Charlottesvillewhite-supremacyracial-violencefirst-termincitement
Updated August 15, 2017 Civil Rights
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Charlottesville: 'Very Fine People on Both Sides' After Neo-Nazi Violence

The Unite the Right rally was organized by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, included marchers with torches chanting 'Jews will not replace us' on the night of August 11, and included violence against counter-protesters on August 12 before James Alex Fields Jr. drove into the crowd. Fields was later convicted of first-degree murder and federal hate crimes. Trump's August 15 press conference response defended those attending the rally as 'people who were very fine people' who were there because they 'protested the taking down of a statue' of Robert E. Lee, and drew a moral equivalence between the white supremacist rally and counter-protesters. Republican leaders including Paul Ryan, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and both former President Bushes publicly criticized the 'both sides' framing.

Sources
4
Charlottesvillewhite-supremacycivil-rightsfirst-termviolence
Updated November 3, 2020 Civil Rights
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity

Charlottesville and Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories: Trump's Relationship with White Nationalism

Trump's failure to clearly condemn the Charlottesville marchers — who carried torches and chanted neo-Nazi slogans — was part of a documented pattern of engagement with white nationalist and anti-Semitic content. Trump retweeted accounts associated with white nationalism, used the word 'invasion' for Hispanic immigration (a term that appeared in the El Paso mass shooter's manifesto), shared memes created by neo-Nazi accounts, and refused to commit to accepting election results — all while white nationalist and anti-Semitic incidents rose sharply.

Sources
5
white-nationalismCharlottesvilleanti-Semitismhate-crimesfirst-term