As emotions are running high on this day theyve already seen so much violence. Not just today but also in that rally you saw White Supremacist leading to the University Of Virginia campus. And a lot of locals here having a hard time grappling with the images coming out of this otherwise quiet college town. We have seen the verbal altercations between, yes, of course, protesters and counterprotesters, in addition to the violence, but also ive seen verbal altercations between members of this community telling people visiting here from outside to go home. To leave them be and to let charlottesville return to the college town it normally would be in the lead up to School Starting back up again later this month. All right, Kaylee Hartung reporting live from charlottesville. Thank you. I want to get straight to athena jones who is in new jersey where the president is having a working vacation. After waiting for him to respond
to the violence in charlottesville for quite some time, it appears that the president has just tweeted again, athena, right . Reporter hi, boris, thats right. After hours of silence, weve now seen two tweets from the president just in the last 40 minutes. This latest tweet, just a couple of minutes ago at the top of the hour tweeting out am in bedminster for meetings and press conference on v. A. , veterans affairs, and all that we have done and are doing to make it better, but charlottesville, sad, exclamation point. Weve heard that sort of Sentence Construction in tweets before from the president calling various things sad. Now hes calling Whats Going On in charlottesville sad. 40 minutes ago when we saw his first tweet, ill read that again for our viewers, he said, we all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in america. Lets come together as one. That tweet coming about 40 minutes ago. Again, the first time we heard from the president. A few minutes after the president posted that tweet, we also heard from Vice President mike pence who quote tweeted the president and added that he stands with potus, president of the United States, against hate and violence. U. S. Is greatest when we join together and oppose those seeking to divide us. Charlottesville. Its important to note here, boris, as weve been saying for some time now that we finally did hear from the president and Vice President , but after hearing from a number of other officials, republicanelected officials and even another member of the first family. We heard from First Lady Melania Trump about the violence in charlottesville even before we heard from the president and Vice President. We also heard from speaker paul ryan, speaker of the house. Weve heard from the chairwoman of the Republican National committee, all of those responses coming before we heard from the man in charge, the president. We usually expect to see president s traditionally trying to calm and soothe tensions in a
situation like this. I do think one other thing is notable about these two tweets now from the president , in neither of them does he explicitly condemn the White Nationalists who organized this demonstration and the demonstration Last Night In Charlottesville that were now seeing resulting in violence. Thats noteworthy for two reasons, one reason is that Candidate Trump got a lot of support from White Nationalists, from the altright movement during the campaign. Now, after the election, when he was president elect, he gave an interview to New York Times condemning those groups and saying he doesnt want to energize them. But we have not seen him explicitly condemning White Nationalists today. One more reason this is notable is that just a few days ago a high level white house official, sebastian gorka, who was a Deputy Assistant to the president , gave an interview to Breitbart News daily, a radio program. He was talking about terrorism and this idea of lone wolf terrorist, but at one point took issue with some of the criticism
from other journalists and he said that the white man, White Supremacists are not the problem here. That is a remarkable statement to hear from a high level official in the white house, to hear him say that White Supremacists are not a problem do not sometimes lead to violence. Of course we saw dylann roof a couple years ago was a lone wolf shooter and a vowed White Supremacist responsible for killing those church goers in charleston. So remarkable to see that kind of comment from a member of the white house team, boris. Lets also not forget, athena, that the president criticized democrats throughout the campaign for not naming the enemy by name and radical islamic terror. Now he is not exactly naming this enemy by its name. Athena jones, we thank you for the report from new jersey. This rally in charlottesville attracted White Nationalists from all over the country including former klansman david duke, and he tied these protests directly to the president. Listen to this. The hate. In other words, its a generic term about hate, but hes not going after these people by name. In this twitter age in this cable news age it is an expectation of an almost instant response from President Trump. And thats an expectation that he has partly said himself by reacting so quickly. For example, at a Terror Attack in london at a possible Terrorist Attack in paris, france, months ago. We saw almost instantaneous reactions to those instances from President Trump, potentially because he was watching cable news at that moment. The lack of an instant response from the president is, i think, one of the reasons why hes being criticized now. So lets see what he says this afternoon. I think it will be notable what he actually says on camera that will drive the News Coverage of this into the evening. Meanwhile, this story in charlottesville is not over. Reports of a car striking pedestrians downtown just now, apparently people injured there according to local reporters. This is still very much ongoing. So the president can have influence with what he says on twitter and what he says on camera. Yeah, cnn is now working to
confirm those reports. Tara, i want to go to you. Why is it that so many of these whether altright or White Nationalists or White Supremacist leaders like david duke, like richard spencer, seem to embrace the president so much . You heard david duke saying this is a fulfillment of his campaign promises. President donald trump really appealed to them because a big portion of this group of people they do make up a large part of his base. They believe that they are being economically disadvantaged by the immigrant community, which essentially is people who are nonwhite, who they think have come to the United States often from mexico and from other places and are taking their jobs. And this is a big part of his rally cry. It really applies to, you know, the Working Class who maybe can compete with some of the jobs that require more education. And so they have this sort of Common Thread between them. But lets not forget that trump did attract a lot of minorities as well. The problem is that the people who did vote for him, which were larger than his base at the time in 2016, who knows if those people will come along with him the group of them who are not part of his core 30 base. So he needs to be speaking to a broader audience than just 30 right now if he wants to be reelected. Julian, to you, you are very well versed in history. And it seems like today history is repeating itself. Were talking about the possibility of nuclear war. Were seeing people fighting in the street over race. Earlier we heard representative from tennessee Marsha Blackburn say this is just a part of our nations history. What did you make of the ugliness today in charlottesville . Well, weve seen ugliness in different parts of American History, but a lot of Whats Going On in charlottesville today is really an ongoing reaction to many of the moments of progress from the 1960s such as racial justice. And this is a rally driven by White Nationalist organizations. So its not repeating the 60s. Its in some ways a rejection of them. And the real question isnt why President Trump took so long to condemn the violence. Its why didnt he condemn the march to begin with . Thats the real question here. And its an ongoing concern about where these groups fit in a Governing Coalition that many see as reactionary. And, brian, was the president s response enough, or do you think he needs to do more than simply disavow these groups . I dont think hes going to satisfy any of his detractors with his two tweets today. Lets see what he says on camera. Maybe he will go much further. But we have seen in the past a reluctance for him to engage on these issues. If you think about the mosque in minnesota that was apparently targeted about a week ago, no president ial reaction to that incident as well. Some of the local Faith Leaders were wondering why the president hadnt spoken out about that. So theres a pattern to this. Lets recognize that. At the same time recognize this is not all about President Trump. The issues in this country were not all created November 9th Or 8th Of Last year. Like julian said this is reaction to decades of progress and there are these fringe people on the right, this today is a rightwing protest and cunterprotesters, there are these fringe folks that are kind of mobilized and radicalized what they read on the internet they come out here with racist beliefs. They are by the numbers a small group of people, but they are empowered by others who sometimes stay silent. Tara, i think you did you Say Something . No, i just agreed with brian in the sense that they are a small group of people, but it is still shocking to see them on television. And the thing is trump needs to understand that they are a small group of people. And they are worth alienating in a way by calling them out. But its also politically risky for them and so the people wouldnt traditionally went out to vote and went out to vote for him in 2016. Yeah, when you even have one
of these protesters caught on camera saying hail trump and then that video goes viral and spreads across twitter and facebook, thats a political problem for the president. Uhhuh. But its also a deeper problem for our country. That any protester would talk that way. There are protesters here, individuals that are outright racist and antisemitic. And then you have some that are along for the ride that want to be a part of the spectacle. Its worth noting not everybody in this group is necessarily an extreme racist. But, yes, some of them are. Some of the folks bringing the torches to campus last night are. Its a shame for charlottesville, a beautiful town. I think anybody whos ever been there loves charlottesville and feels for the town today as there was a lot of locals trying to make things better today by going out and denouncing the racist to their town. This touches on issues bigger than the protest. There have been ongoing debates about race from Criminal Justice to Voting Restrictions that have been imposed over the last few decades to segregation and
economic inequality that are all connected to whats being debated on the streets. While most of the people here are Fringe Groups and the violence is not normative, this touches on a bigger question about is this nation doing enough to move forward on the issues of racial equality and justice that were not completed in the 1960s . All right. Everyone, please stick around. I want to go very quickly to Kaylee Hartung. We are hearing that the reports that brian alluded to earlier about a car ramming into people on the streets of charlottesville, kaylee, what are you hearing about that . Reporter yeah, boris, we can now report that the Charlottesville Police and the Virginia State police are on the scene of a threevehicle accident at water and fourth streets in downtown charlottesville. That is just about a block off the downtown mall, the heart of the city. Multiple injuries are reported, statement from the Governors Office and state official says people should clear the area to allow emergency medical
personnel to respond. The state will be releasing more information as they have it. Yeah, we will certainly keep an eye on that story and find out if this was just an accident or something perhaps more nefarious. Kaylee, thank you very much. And stay with cnn. Were going to continue watching the unfolding events in charlottesville, virginia. Whoooo. Going somewhere . Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more. Than 200 Booking Sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. Only tempurbreeze® mattresses. Use an integrated system of technologies to keep you cool while you sleep. Ultrabreathable Support Layers channel heat away from your body. Purecool Technology Delivers cooling comfort you can feel. And the performance cover is cool to the touch. So you sleep cool and wake up feeling powerful. Only Exclusive Retailers carry breeze. Find yours at tempurpedic. Com cooling. Affairs bill and potentially talk about the violence weve been watching this morning in charlottesville. We will of course bring you his remarks live and the latest on these violent protests in charlottesville. I want to turn now to Kaylee Hartung who is in that area. We got reports just a few moments ago that a car had apparently run into a crowd. Then we got confirmation that it was apparently a threecar accident. Is it clear whether or not this was intentional, kaylee . Reporter boris, its very unclear the circumstances of this threecar accident. From two different eyewitnesses who saw it had varying accounts of what took place, but pedestrians were struck. They are saying there are multiple injuries reported. Again, we are unsure if these were protesters, counterprotesters, which side of this argument drivers of these vehicles fall on and which side the victims of these collisions fall on, but right now from our Vantage Point looking down from
the downtown mall, youve got Virginia State police in their Riot Gear Blocking off any access to the Street Corner where this incident took place. The city is asking to clear the area so emergency medical personnel can respond. Just a few minutes ago i saw an ambulance pull up but then pull out of sight. Very hard for us to get an eye on exactly what the scene is like where this accident took place. All right. Kaylee, please stay with us. I want to now bring in cnns Law Enforcement analyst cedric alexander. Sir, thanks so much for joining us. When you watch what is unfolding here, what are Law Enforcement trying to do now to process this scene and to try to figure out what exactly happened . Well, they have quite a scene there as you can only imagine in what we see. This was horrific account of where we are in this country that occurred this morning. And the Police Department there along with the state police of course caught right in the middle of it. And its going to be interesting
to see, quite frankly, Going Forward how theyre going to go back and address this issue of things that they may have could have done to intervene earlier and what those challenges may have been and what intelligence may have been gathered days before the rally last night and the unfortunate event we saw take place around this world today in charlottesville. Yeah. Now, sir, i know we dont have all the information for what happened in this specific incident, but what kind of information are these investigators looking for to determine if this was intentional or not . Well, i dont know if thats going to really be a role the police to make that determination as rather this was intentional or not. I think the bigger question is going to be for us is where we are in this country as it relates to these issues that are very clearly still unresolved. I meant specifically about this car accident, but go on, sir. But in regards to the car
accident itself, if thats what youre speaking about specifically, we dont know. They will investigate witnesses and of course those that were involved in that accident theyre going to interview. And we dont know whether this