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Virginia governor urges Trump to call white supremacists out ‘for what they are’

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe visited Mount Zion First African Baptist Church and First Baptist Church and spoke to congregants after violent clashes in the city between white supremacist groups and counterprotesters.
Virginia governor urges Trump to call white supremacists out ‘for what they are’
Flowers and other mementos are left at a makeshift memorial for the victims after a car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally earlier in the day in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Jerome Socolovsky

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP/RNS) — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe visited two Charlottesville churches and spoke to congregants after violent clashes in the city between white supremacist groups and counterprotesters that left three dead.

COMMENTARY: The hatred in Charlottesville does not surprise me

McAuliffe reiterated that the angry political rhetoric needs to stop.


And President Trump “needs to come out stronger” against the actions of white supremacists, McAuliffe told reporters at the First Baptist Church in Charlottesville. “They are Nazis and they are here to hurt American citizens, and he needs to call them out for what they are, no question.”

McAuliffe also visited Mount Zion First African Baptist Church.

Three were killed and dozens were injured amid what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade to protest the city’s decision to remove a Confederate monument. A car rammed into a crowd of protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman, and a state police helicopter crashed into the woods, leaving two troopers onboard dead.

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Trump criticized the violence and called for a return to law and order. But his critics say his racially tinged rhetoric has exacerbated the nation’s political tensions and emboldened racists.

The mayor of Charlottesville blamed the nation’s intensifying political divisions for the violent clashes between white supremacist groups and counterprotesters that left three dead.

Mayor Michael Signer on Saturday bemoaned the “very sad and regrettable coarseness in our politics.”

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Three were killed and dozens were injured amid what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade to protest the city’s decision to remove a Confederate monument. A car rammed into a crowd of protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman, and a state police helicopter crashed into the woods, leaving two troopers onboard dead.

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