5 Reactions to Donald Trump's 'Both Sides' Comments on Charlottesville Violence
House Democrats
Democratic members of the House of Representatives have introduced a resolution calling for the censure of Trump over his "both sides" comments.
Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., authored the measure.
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"The resolution would censure and condemn Trump for reasserting this week that 'both sides' were to blame for the violence between white nationalists attending the 'Unite the Right' rally to protest the city's removal of a Confederate statue and counter-protesters," The Hill reported on Wednesday.
Last Saturday, alt-right protesters — which included white supremacists, the KKK, and white nationalist socialist groups — held the "Unite the Right" rally to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Emancipation Park.
The event was organized by Jason Kessler, a man who used to be an Obama supporter and an Occupy Wall Street activist, who was defended in federal court by the ACLU of Virginia and the Rutherford Institute, which claimed that "his First and 14th Amendment rights were being denied by the city's refusal to allow him and supporters to access Emancipation Park on Aug. 12 for a previously approved demonstration," the ACLU states on its website.
"Charlottesville tried to revoke the permit it had issued for the rally to be held in Emancipation Park, in order to move the protestors about a mile away to McIntire Park, which offered more open space," NPR reports.
Violent clashes broke out between Antifa and white nationalist groups after police were reportedly given orders to stand down, according to the ACLU, which was monitoring the situation.
Later in the day, a 20-year-old named James Alex Fields Jr. drove his 2010 Dodge into a crowd of counter protesters and sent bodies flying, a scene that was caught on camera. The vehicular assault killed Heather Heyer, 32, and injured at least 19 others.
Fields is believed to have been at the rally with a group called Vanguard America, a self-proclaimed anti-Semitic national socialist group.
