>> thank you for driving me. >> thank you. you are in the cnn newsroom, i'm anna cabrera in new york. we're standing by to hear the first word from law officials in charlottesville, virginia. news conference is expected to happen any moment. we'll go to it live. the terror in virginia is our breaking news. i have confirmed casualty figures. one person is dead, at least 19 others were hurt after a speeding car plowed into a crowd of people during a chaotic day of protests and clashes in the college town of shaof charlotte. what you're about to see is very graphic and disturbing, shows people being badly hurt and we learned one person was killed. [ bleep ] again, the city of charlottesville just releasing

that one person died when the car suddenly plowed into a crowd of people and at least 19 others were injured in that incident alone in addition to at least 15 other people who were hurt in violent clashes throughout the day. look at this video as more violence took over the streets. here's what led up to all of this. tensions spiked when white national is and other extreme right groups showed up to protest the removal of a confederate general is it the uat emancipation park. they clashed with counterprotesters and the two groups went from shouting to fighting with sticks, with bottle, with pepper spray. we have a group of people here about to weigh in, and first i want to go to cnn correspondent kaylee hartung who is on the scene. it is calm there.

what are police saying? >> reporter: there's still a strong police presence in the downtown mall of charlottesville. the crime scene, the scene of that incredibly graphic collision that we've showed you is still cordonned off. police otherwise keeping a tight lip what their orders are, how long they will be posted up here. seems they don't know the answer to that question. there's a lot of uncertainty here, tensions remain high, as we saw thousands of protesters and counter protesters dispersed earlier from that rally, still uncertainty about where they have gone and if the outsiders who have come to town have left there will be this press conference starting shortly with governor mcauliffe of virginia as well as other state and local partners in charlottesville to address all that's transpired today. >> are you hearing from the people who witnessed the car plowing into the crowd of people? >> reporter: i did, ana.

it was a really eye-opening conversation as graphic as those images that we've showed you are, to hear the per spspective these two young men were startling. they were disturbed by the violence they saw, they described it as terrorism. one of the men shot the video we've been showing you on cnn and what they described to me in the moments before that video began was startlinstartling. once we saw the video it seemed obvious that was an intentional act by the driver of that car to plow through that group of counterprotesters. they described a scene in which moments before that car came screaming down the street that that car sat at the top of this street and surveyed the scene ahead of him. they said the windows were very dark and tinted. they couldn't get a good look at him. they describe him as a white male with a closely slaved head. ana, the violence witnessed today truly traumatic those who

have seen it in the fatal crash that took the life of one and injured 19 others. >> so we were walking down the road as brandon mentioned. we came around the corner and you can see the car just sat there looking down the road and as he said, the protesters were coming down fourth street, so i don't know, i thought that's a bit strange, there didn't seem to be any other cars stopping him from going and moments later we heard a car going incredibly fast down the road and saw it plow into the crowd and reversed back and we were some of us ran after the car to take a photo and then followed it around down the road, alerting the police to chase it. >> reporter: what transpired in those minutes after the car left this block and left you? what was the scene like here?

>> there was almost an immediate response from first responders. there were state police right here on the mall. i don't know if they actually witnessed it so we alerted them and said you need to get there immediately, first aid crews came in and armorred vehicle came down to block the scene. the response was quick, but you know, obviously i understand one person lost their life, and it was a very, very violent attack. >> reporter: and brennan, you said you helped administer first aid to a woman. what else did you observe in terms of victims of that crash? >> there were a lot of victims around the scene of the actual crash, half way down the block and people coming up bloodied, shaken obviously, people hyperventilating, and then yeah, again, receipt tlet the profess take over and we got out of the scene. it was an increasingly vie let day in charlottesville. i agree with the recommendation of the mayor people stay home.

>> reporter: the driver of the car has been apprehended. we hope to learn more about what the police discovered in the investigation of that incident. >> kaylee hartung reporting, many are calling this attack domestic terrorism. i want to talk about this with a host of people, andre bauer cnn law enforcement analyst cedric alexander, van jones, and "new york times" contributing area anushea hossein, and evan mcmullen who launched a third party run against trump in 2016. you're a strong supporter of this president, you've now witnessed white nationalist rallies in your state before, we're seeing it here today. one person is now dead after a car plowed into a crowd of

americans. andre, as a southerner, given your background, what do you say when you deal with people who share views with white supremacists? >> well, i would say this. i'm right down the street from mother emmanuel church, my house is. i was a senator with clemente pinckney who was killed there. we held everyone accountable and they were condemned by all. this community rallied around those individuals and their families, and we became a stronger community because of it. i feel now van and i differ, but we respect each other. i feel like the president addressed the situation but i also feel like we need more information. we don't know what the driver's intent was, who they were associated with. we know multiple people on both sides were hit. it wasn't just one side. it was a crowded field this individual drove into so i'm not sure it was targeted to hit one person i don't know. i think before you run out and make a whole lot of accusations you ought to have more information. we'll get that in due time. it's dangerous to immediately say one thing or the other

before we have all the facts. i think the president was bold to come out and say we are totally against hatred and bigotry and violence. he's letting it be known we don't condone this type of behavior in any way but to say the president is disingenuous i disagree with. i think he was very clear and precise in what he said about this type of behavior. >> evan mcmullen, was the president clear and concise and bold? >> no, he wasn't any of those things. i think he did the bare minimum. he said things that we agree with, condemning hatred and violence, et cetera, but he also tried to equate all of the both sides with each other. the reality is that am big fwbin his statement the failure to call out white supreme simple and david duke and others on the ground demanding the president live up to promises to them, whatever they are, his failure to condemn that is the problem and it's a signal to these white

supremacists that it's a positive signal to them. it's a signal he's not fully opposed to them or he's not willing to fully confront them and that only encourages them, and the evidence is the growing movement that they have. our leaders need to step up to this especially on the republican side, and some are, many are today. i'm encouraged, but this is a bigger problem of republican leaders not enough of them being willing to stand up regularly, not when it's so obvious, not when there's a huge incident or protest or violence, but regularly to fight for equality in america, fighting for equality in america is part of fighting for liberty in america and more of our republican leaders need to do it. >> we have been reading some of the statements from other republican leaders. i read the one from cory gardner, a representative from colorado. >> right. >> a republican earlier. i have one from marco rubio, senator from florida, as we all

know, also a former presidential candidate, i can read those to our viewers "nothing patriotics about nazis the kkk or white supremacists. it's the direct opposite of what america seeks to b be" #charlottesville. you see people speaking out directly against the kind of hatred on display there. >> that should not be remarkable. somebody lost their life today, an american sit den, wocitizen, said he or she had a long life to live. i want to witness nazis marching down american streets. dr. king lost his life trying to stop the klan. every responsible parent raises their kids to hate, to not hate based on color. somebody wakes up in america and says i want to stand against that, and they are killed in america by a nazi, it should not be a surprise that there is universal condemnation

specifically about hate groups, white supremacy, terrorism. that's what we're supposed to do. the challenge that we have right now is that this president is not adelaide stevenson. he's not someone who doesn't get worked up. when he's passionate and angry, he's specific, he names names, points fingers and today it was many sides, many sides and a lot of positive admonition. i am very concerned that he is not sending a strong enough signal to people who think that this is the right way to engage in politics in america, mowing people down, showing up to protests which w shields and guns, i'm concerned that he missed an opportunity today to nip this in the bud and say i'm making america great again, this is not great. i do not want this. it's got to stop right now. he said some good thing but he did not say enough things and i'm worried. >> cedric alexander it shall -- go ahead, anushay. >> i completely agree with what

van and evan just said. for some perspective, imagine if these crowds weren't white, they were black or they were muslim, what would we be talking about now? where would donald trump's statement be about right now? we need to be absolutely clear, the president needs to come out, label this as domestic terrorism. whenever we wonder what donald trump is going to say, this man speaks in specifics, he's not abstra abstract. today his statement about charlottesville, he talked about a child's right to play outside and be happy and have fun with their parents. what is he talking about? why isn't he calling out these people by their names? >> they don't even know, there's no -- >> the broader question i have, andre, regarding that, you can answer and respond to that, those remarks is, why do these people think it's okay to hold a demonstration that is promoting white nationalist values so

boldly in the public discourse? >> well, i'm not a member of that group but they have a first amendment right like anybody. plenty of people have rallies i don't agree with but that's part of their first amendment right. again we know nothing about the driver. to speculate what the driver's intent was, who they were, we don't know. so immediately pass judgment or fault without any information -- >> people were gathering before the driver. this isn't the first incident that's happened in charlottesville. >> we're gauging -- >> you can't be zeroing in about the driver, andre. this has been going on for 24 hours now. there was an incident in may. listen, the southern poverty law center has already stated that the candidacy and now the presidency of donald trump has electrified the right wing movement in this country. we don't need to focus on the driver. he is one part of a larger story. if you want to zero in on that, you can zero in on that. the president is not speaking out strongly enough. if this was a group of muslims

or a group of blacks, this would be a whole different conversation and that's a fact. this is trump's america. >> you didn't support the president from the get-go, i guarantee that with what question. no matter what he does or says you're going to criticize him. >> that's not true. >> hey, one at a time. finish your thought and then i want to get cedric alexander in here as well. okay, cedric? i'll let you respond to what you've just been listening to. we talked earlier, you talked about crimes being on display before your very eyes. >> um-hum. >> you have a law enforcement background and you were also critical of how the president responded to these remarks. you believe some of what he said is actually dangerous. >> let me say this, i'll respond as a former law enforcement official, been in this job for a very, very long time, and now being a public servant as a deputy mayor. let me talk perspective as a law man if i will, in a very conservative law man. as i stated earlier, it's about

being fair and being impartial to all people, period. yes, each one of those groups had the right to be there under our first amendment. they both did, but neither one of them had the right to be violent. now, i think it's important to note that this is not any kind of way a slam against the president of the united states. when you're president, when you're in that position or any political position, you're always going to be a target. it comes with it. ask president barack obama. so let's consider the fact of this. we had hate groups out there today, kkk groups, neo-nazi groups, anti-semitic groups, anti-anything that you can name groups which is not representative of the majority of people in this country, white or black, christian or jew, member or women, that is not who we are as a nation. we are an evolving nation of diversity, and any law enforcement official or any city

official, nobody's going to come on this program or any program and tell you that is not the case. it is about being fair and impartial. the president of the united states, he's our president, whether people like it or not. he is the president of this country, but he had a responsibility today to say to the history of the kkk, say to the history of naziism, say to the history of anything hateful and call them out by name and say this is not acceptable. >> but he hasn't done that in the past. >> this is not, this does not in any kind of way, let me say this, this is not in any other kind of way but say to the american people, 300 million people in this country, this will not be tolerated by any group, period. as simple as that. this is not a cerebral debate i'll have on this program with anybody but i'll put it in perspective that is simple for people to understand. we are americans. and everyone has the right to protest, but no one has the

right to violence, and in regards to the vehicle that crashed into the crowd, mr. barr is right. we don't know who that subject was, but it does not matter. at this point, something very hateful happened, and someone was involved in it. we're going to know, they're going to be dealt with under virginia law, but collectively as a nation, we got to figure out how we're going to go forward and if we're not going to get the leadership from elected officials at a national level or wherever, then it b becomes very important at a local level, at the state level, at the local level, that those communities take responsibility for their communities and they find a way to work through this, so that we can move forward as a nation. this is horrible for this, and the world is watching and as i stated and as i stated earlier our children are watching, ana, they're watching us. >> we are watching for the news conference with one of those officials you just talked about, needing to send a strong message, needing to provide

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welcome back. let's go live to the governor of virginia, terry mcauliffe. >> in addition to many individuals who have been hurt, let me start off first by thank ing all of our law enforcement officials. this could have been a much worse day today. i want to thank our local law enforcement individuals. i want to thank the first responders. i want to thank all the state police, to the national guard, and everybody else who was involved in today's activities. we planned for a long time for today's incidents. i want to give a special thank you to the clergy who were here today who helped us on the streets. i also want to thank those courageous uva college students yesterday who last evening surrounded the statue of thomas jefferson to protect that statue, and i have a message to all the white supremacists and the nazis who came in to

charlottesville today. our message is plain and simple. go home. you are not wanted in this great commonwealth. shame on you. you pretend that you're patriots, but you are anything but a patriot. you want to talk about patriots? talk about thomas jefferson and george washington, who brought our country together. you think about the patriots today, the young men and women who are wearing the cloth of our count country. somewhere around the globe they are putting their life in danger. they're patriots. you are not. you came here today to hurt people, and you did hurt people. but my message is clear. we are stronger than you. you have made our commonwealth stronger. you will not succeed. there is no place for you here, there is no place for you in

america. we work here today to bring people together, to unify folks. i'll remind you all that we are a nation of immigrants. unless you're native american, the first ships that came to jamestown, virginia, in 1607, and since that time, many people have come to our great country to unite us. our diversity that, may somedayic tile of immigrants is what makes us so special, and we will not let anybody come here and destroy it. so please, go home and never come back. take your hatred and take your bigotry. there is no place. and if i could give you a piece of advice, use your time and energy to help people. come with me to a homeless shelter. come with me to help a veteran find a job or a place to live. that's what we need help on, to bring people together.

i spoke to the president this afternoon, and we had a conversation and i told the president that there has got to be a movement in this country to bring people together. the hatred and rhetoric that has gone on and has intensified over the last couple months is dividing this great nation. we need to work together. i told the president that twice, be willing to work with you if we can work together to bring people together, but stop the hate speech. stop the rhetoric in this country. we have got to bring people together. but we are a great commonwealth, and we are a great nation, and we are even stronger today because of those actions of those people who came with their bigotry and hatred. i'd now like to introduce the mayor of the city of charlottesville, michael seigner. >> thank you, governor. this is one of the world's truly

great cities. we have been the home of a lot of history. we have overcome a lot in our democracy. we've overcome mccarthyism, we've overcome segregation, and we're going to overcome this. this tide of hatred, and of intolerance and of bigotry that has come to us and that has marched down with torches the lawn of one of the founders of democracy, it is brought here by outsiders and brought here by people who belong in the trash heap of history with these ideas. they're going in be the trash heap of history. this day will not define us. we will define this day by the story that we continue to tell tomorrow and the tomorrow after that, the week after that, and the year after that. there is a very sad and regrettable coarseness in our politics that we've all seen too much of today. our opponents have become our enemies. debate has become intimidation.

what democracy is about and we know this here because we're the birthplace, it's about deliberation,s and progress and working together and at the end of the day if you disagree with, you don't try to take them down. you move forward. these folks are on the losing side of history. the work of rebuilding of healing is just beginning today. tomorrow will come and we will emerge, i can promise you, stronger than ever. with that, i also want to thank the state government, i want to thank governor mcauliffe and secretary moran for all their helps, my colleagues on the council, all four, the charlottesville police department and their law enforcement partners from around the state protecting their residence, the university of virginia our hearts break for the casualties and injuries suffered today and our prayers are going out right now. send your folks to their

families and loved ones. with that i'll turn it over to our city manager maurice jones i believe. thank you. >> thank you, mr. mayor. hate came to our town today, in a way that we had feared, but we had never really let ourselves imagine would. i wanted to start today by thanking the virginia state police and our law enforcement officers and all the first responders who are here in charlottesville today to protect our community. the charlottesville police department and our state partners and the virginia state police were on the scene in our community very early this morning, anticipating large crowds, law enforcement was on hand before 10:00 this morning, actually began around 6:00 this morning and unfortunately, as we went through this day, we had folks who came here to cause

mayhem and chaos and mischief taken resulted in three fatalities here in the city of charlottesville. in the days and the weeks to come, our city will have many conversations in city hall and community centers, in our houses of worship, over our fences, and at our dinner tables. i would ask that in addition to sharing our grief and looking back at this difficult and extraordinary summer that we look forward. i would ask that we would consider the question of who we are as a city and who we wish to be. i would ask that we each seek opportunities to seek people who share our home here in charlottesville, but who are outside of our circles. i would ask that we work to build meaningful relationships and foster strong connections. city hall will be working with the community to rebuild our structures and repair damages, and we will also work to provide opportunities for our community to come together to mourn, connect, and move forward.

but city hall cannot build the bonds between neighbors or create new friendships. i'm calling on each one of our residents not only here in the city of charlottesville, but in the charlottesville area, to come together and take all of this into our hearts and our daily lives today, and to begin healing as a community. if we all come together, we cannot fall apart. we'll be with you and we will be beside you, as together we write the next chapter in charlottesville's history. thank you. >> thank you, mr. jones. chief al thomas, charlottesville police department, good evening. the premeditated violence that our community experienced today was completely unacceptable. this situation escalated rapidly

into violence, and we had no choice but to deploy additional personnel in front of virginia state police, the virginia national guard to help disperse the crowd and move people safely through the streets. none of the injuries sustained today were due to engagement with law enforcement. as of late this afternoon, there have been at least 35 people treated for injuries by city personnel. 14 people have been treated for injuries resulting from individual engagements, non-pedestrians were treated for injuries in a three-vehicle crash at the intersection of fourth street and water street here in downtown charlottesville. their injuries range from life-threatening to minor. the crash also claimed the life of a 32-year-old female pedestrian at the intersection as she was crossing the street. we are still in the process of notifying her next of kin so we will not be releasing her information until that takes place as a courtesy to the

family. the suspect vehicle that left the scene of the crash was located moments later, and the male driver is in custody with charges pending. we are currently treating this as a criminal homicide investigation. also want to extend my appreciation to the many individuals who witnessed the crash for helping us by providing statements, photos, and video evidence. again, the crash remains under investigation. so where do we go from here? for right now, we're encouraging people to return home. police let our city of charlottesville, our home, start to recover from this. what the world saw today is not the place charlottesville is. we love our city. let us heal. this is not our story. outsiders do not tell our story. we will tell our own story. as is commonplace, we will be

reviewing the events of the day over the next weeks and months. we are committed to providing o our residents with a strong, safe city to live in, and be partners in our community. thank you. >> and that wraps up the press conference involving many leaders in the local community there in charlottesville, but most importantly we heard at the very top there, three people have been killed in today's violence, including at least one person who was killed in the incident in which a vehicle plowed into a crowd of people in charlottesville, virginia, following the clashes that happened earlier in the day between protesters who were clashing with white supremacists who had gathered there for their own rally. back with us now our panel, andre bauer, van jones, anushay hossain, evan mcmullin.

he says i have a message to the white supremacists and neo-nazis, go home. he said you are not patriots. you came here today to hurt people. there is no place for you here. there is no place for you in america. van? those words were clear and direct. >> i think those were the words that a lot of people needed to hear and want to hear continually from the president, from the governor and -- listen, there has to be a universal condemnation of the loudest sort. we now have three americans dead all -- listen, andre says we don't have all the facts. i'm going to go out an a limb and say that the person who rammed into that crowd did so for political reasons, so an act of political terrorism and i think it's going to be revealed that it was white supremacist terrorism, so one of the things that has to happen now, you now

have three people who are dead and there may be more, when americans start being murdered and killed in our country for political reasons, by nazis, if that country can't come together on that, we are in deep trouble. there is no political downside, folks, to condemning nazis killing americans. i promise you we're not that far gone. so this is the opportunity for to us come together, and the president of the united states should be leading the charge. if this president does not want to be sending dog signals and winks and nods to white supremacists and nazis, this guy is one of the clearest communicators in history of american politics. he should come out just as clear as the governor. if the governor can be that clear the president should be more clear because he's on the world stage and the whole world is watching. this is an absolute outrage. i don't get it. when you have someone who says in one part of his speech he loves everybody, there are now, it looks like if you look online the nazis are celebrating his speech. 'not been confirmed but they're

saying he is saying he loves us. he is not being clear enough. he's got to be more clear. >> van, just to be fair for the president he's not a white supremacist himself. is he being held responsible for something he didn't have control over? >> if there were a muslim terrorist attack he's not a muslim terrorist. if there were -- if the people who love science fiction started blowing stuff up, he probably doesn't like science fiction. it doesn't matter what the terrorist is about. he has to condemn terrorism. he has to condemn extremism, and i don't understand why he feels like if it's a white supremacist group he's got to tiptoe. he has more authority as somebody who is on the right to say to say there is a clean right and a dirty right. the clean right has ideas i agree with. the dirty right incites violence and bigotry and racism and has no place in my party, my movement or my country. if he said that it would shock these people back on their

heels. the fact he hasn't said it and we have three people dead and nothing from the president, he has not said one thing about the person who died earlier, he hasn't said -- now we got three. i don't understand why or how the president of the united states can look at americans being murdered in broad daylight and say stop killing americans. the governor can do it, the president can't. >> andre, let me turn to you. you defended the president's comments earl yes or no. the president's comments snan stark contrast to governor mcauliffe, going after the people there to express hate. what is partisan about that? >> i don't think there was anything partisan. i thought the governor was fair in what he said. i'm not one of these every time somebody on the other side says something i condemn it. there's certain guests that come on the show no matter what

they'll condemn donald trump. he said what he thought was right, when he gets more facts i feel like he'll speak again but it's very easy to go off and say things you know, what are politically popular but i think you get the facts first. i got over 15 years of law enforcement experience as well. i had to deal with certain things and you try to get the facts before you immediately come to conclusions and i think tomorrow will be a clearer day for the president to make more comments but he emfattally said there's no place -- >> andre, let me stop you. the facts of the matter are, the people who were there were up front about their intentions coming to the park, to the confederate monument, the statue that is being removed there in charlottesville. they were there to promote their white supremacist ideology. i don't think that anybody is questioning what their intentions were, and so for them to be there and the president not to say that isn't okay for you to have, it's okay for you to have that opinion, but it's

not okay for to you bring that hatred into our country, to not call a spade a spade like that is where we're hearing the criticism. >> again, he called out what he thought was fair and reasonable. he denounced it. he just didn't denounce it enough for a lot of folks on the other side, but again, he said what he thought was more than -- i thought it was more than reasonable. he said there's no place for this. he even tweeted out "this is sad." >> he tweeted that out but he was asked specifically after his remarks what do you say to the white supremacists who are there? what do you say to people like david duke? he did not answer. >> he didn't respond to any questioning. maybe he didn't want to open it up for questions, maybe we other things he was working on, maybe he didn't want to continue to answer questions without having more facts. >> andre, what are you waiting for, andre? what is enough facts for you? for the past 48 hours we have seen nazis coming in, they have

chanting nazi slogans, they have identified themselves very clearly. today david duke said he came out of the protest, he said this is a turning point in taking our country back. he mentioned the president by name. he said this is why we voted for donald trump. what do you need? what needs to happen? >> the president already announced to david -- you need to know who the victims were and the driver was. >> the vimctims were american, the driver was american and the victim was american. we are americans. >> again, if i could -- >> there have been a lot of republicans who have come out and condemned what has happened there. >> and the president did. >> i know that's my point, the president condemned what happened, but he did it in a way very different from what we've seen from some other republican leaders. >> it was generic. >> do you see a stark contrast in how the president handled it or are we making a mountain out of a mohill?

>> i see people will contrast donald trump and going to play him in any way they want. >> if donald trump came out and said what we just heard or anything like it from terry mcauliffe or from the mayor in charlottesville, nobody would be criticizing him. >> that's right. >> people like me would be elated and relieved. >> me, too. >> evan when is the last time you said something positive about donald trump? >> i'm going to finish, excuse me sir, i listened to you for a long time and now i'm going to finish. >> i didn't think you'd want to answer that. >> what we just saw is the kind of leadership that america has been waiting for, for the last six or seven months, and i got to tell you, it was refreshing to hear it. we should hear more of it from washington, d.c. now i've got to tell you another thing about this situation. i spent time in republican politics, and with republican leaders and republican leaders tend not to speak out against racism in america, unless it's some disastrous situation like this, and then they come out.

not all of them. some of them are good. some of them do more than others but most of them don't say anything unless it's absolutely obvious like today. the reason for that -- >> evan you tried to derail the republican -- >> no, i'm going to finish sir. >> hold on, andre, let him finish. >> the reason why they don't do that and i know because i've been a part of it, i've seen it myself, is that there's a taboo within the republican party about attacking racism in america, and i know that that's the case, because when you do it as a conservative, you get attacked by elements within the party, and that's where we are, and not all republicans of course are racists. i was raised by republicans who are not at all and welcome americans of all backgrounds and are not at all like this, but there is an element of the republican base that is racist, and our leaders are afraid to stand up to them because, if they do so, they'll be

criticized, and they'll potentially lose votes. and so they don't do it, but that's not public service. that's self-service, and we need leaders especially on the republican and conservative side these days who will serve the country and serving the country means standing up to these bigots. this country is built on equality and liberty and we need all of our leaders regardless of party to stand up for those truths. >> andre, can you argue against that? >> well, what i would say is i'm probably the most southern state of america and democrats put the confederate flag on the dome and the republicans took it off. nikki haley led the charge to take it off the monument as well so republicans are taking the leadership on this to save it. they're scared of some certain group is totally untrue. and for him to -- >> that's one example. knick knick

nikki haley is great, there should be more of him. >> let me read david duke's comments, i don't want to give him any more air time but it's clear where some of the people are standing in this roy rigcou right. "i recommend you take a good look in the mirror and remember it was white americans who put new the presidency, not radical leftists." that was a direct message to the president following his remarks. so andre, do you think trump was in a no-win situation today, that no one would be happy with his comments after his remarks? >> i think that is a fair assessment. however, he has emphatically said i don't want to be associated with david duke or anything about him. i don't want his support. usually when you're a politici n politician -- i was elected in 14 different elections just because somebody supports you does not mean you support them. you want anybody's sore you can get. he said not only do i not agree with him, i do not want his support. >> no you do not.

you do not want anybody's support. if you're a leader you stand for principles and if you're supported by white supremacists in plaerk, thamerica, this is n difficult. this is like hitting a beach ball with a bat. it's not difficult. if you're supported by white supremacists in america, you oppose that and you oppose them. >> he did. >> and you fight against them every day. >> evan, i think you may have misheard andre. i think andre and you are making the same point at this point. he's just saying that donald trump has denounced it, and i would just say to you, andre, i think for a lot of us, at poone time denunciation when somebody is consistently stirring up the pot it falls a little short. the problem we have andre, he has no problem mentioning cnn multiple times to attack us, he has no problem mentioning every leader in the world he doesn't like or in the congress he doesn't like multiple times but with david duke and the white supremacists i've never heard him say white supremacist terrorist. i've never heard him say white

nationalist terrorist, never heard him be specific about the white nationalist terrorists who just killed three people. he insist barack obama be about the problem with radical muslims. when you have those kinds of inconsistenc inconsistencies, andre, you are somebody in the republican party who has been a leading light, anti-racist. we know that about you, but there are people who if you look at what's happening online, white supremacist groups are saying hey, donald trump didn't attack us. god bless donald trump, because they expected to get some blow-back from the president. they didn't get it. you might see the positive in his statement but people that you hate and don't like and people i hate and don't like saw what was not said and think that donald trump gave them a pass today and that is dangerous. >> sedrick, jump cedric, i know something to contribute. >> a moment ago it was statemented by mr. bauer that the president has stated in the

past that he do not want any affiliation with any group that promotes hate. that was true on the campaign trail but what needs to happen at this moment in american history particularly from the demonstration of violence we saw today, he should have made that clear to the american people today, not as running for president, but as president of the united states. >> can you see any reason why he wouldn't have done that? could it have been unintentional for this backlash to come because his remarks didn't hit the mark? >> well, you know what's at risk here quite frankly for the president and what the perception of the american people is, to be honest with you, he did not respond to it and he did not call this group out because many americans, as many of your guests have stated here today, very believe that is much of his base, and not just his base that you saw out in the street of charlottesville, but those who are at home hiding

behind their twitter, and their emails, who are also making these horrible remarks, because there are people out there who unfortunately that support what they saw here today, and have supposedly supported this president. so that creates an environment, quite frankly, in which the president himself had an opportunity today to denounce groups such as the kkk, that has been responsible ever since their inception, which nobody can refute, of violence, in groups like nazi, neo-nazi groups that are totally anti-semitic, anti-black, anti-brown, anti-everything that is not white. >> do you buy the argument perhaps he didn't want to address those groups specifically because he did not want to increase or escalate the tension and the violence that's already there on that scene? >> that is no excuse, because here quickly you heard what the

governor of virginia just said. he took a leadership position as a governor in his state, and said we will not tolerate violence of any sort from any group. we are not going to see ourselves as a racist state. we're not going to associate ourselves with racism and violence of this state, and anybody today that was involved in it, whether you're on the right or on the left, and you took the first punch or you threw the first brick, you are wrong. but here again, we're talking about groups that were vividly clearly exhibited who they were today through their dress, through their makeshift attire of being military, which in my opinion is embarrassing to the u.s. military, to even drag them in this with your makeshift military attire. this is not representative of our u.s. military, and i take offense to that as an american, but those who wish to carry themselves out in the way they did today has to be

acceptable -- unacceptable, unacceptable to all of us in this nation. there's no place for it. we're not going backwards. it's not even possible at this point. we have to figure out how we're going to move forward as a nation, and move from blaming to resolving. we have a bigger threat upon us. it's called north korea. where we are on this from a global perspective, one thing we cannot do, we cannot fight anybody on this planet being divided and we have to come together as americans and today was not an example of that because everybody was watching, everybody. >> van, i know you have taken issue with the president's comments in that he said he doesn't condemn the violence on any side and let me just look at these specific words. i don't want to misquote it here. he says, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred,

bigotry and violence on many sides that's been going on for some time, a long, long time and it has not a place in america. what is wrong with that statement specifically? >> the thing is it's just enough good in the statement that some people are confused as to why those of us concerned are concerned. i'm glad you gave us the language. let me tell you. the problem is the many sides. can you imagine if at ft. hood when there was a muslim shooter who shot down a bunch of americans who said, listen, there's been a lot of violence on many sides. that would not work because you have dead bodies, you have people preparing for funerals, three families preparing for funerals today. that's only on one side. the murder, the weapon, showing up with the shield, all that sort of stuff, that's only coming from one side. so when he then said many sides, what that does is it creates what's called a false equivalence. what everybody here is kind of equally wrong, everybody calm down, everybody be nice but only

one side is murderous. so i don't think he would do that in another context. another act of terrorism. so what's happening now and now, look, i don't want to quote anything, we're not quoting it on cnn, but if you look at what the white supremacists are saying online, they are praising this speech. they think it's a good speech because he didn't go after them. and i think you've got a problem now which is that, yes, the president said some things that are good and andre said no matter what the president says, we're going to attack him. i don't attack the president when he says good stuff and liberals kick my butt from here across the street. i give it where it's due but today, he owes the families more and the country, naziism, we shed blood over that. the president stands clearly against that today and he didn't do that today. >> why didn't he do that today,

andre, and come out with a statement that says, white supremacy is not okay? >> well, again, i don't think he, you know, when they had the riots during his inauguration, he didn't specifically name groups. he condemned it. i don't think today was about going to specific groups. he said he didn't agree with it. he thought it was bad. i'm paraphrasing now, but he sent a message as president of the united states, he didn't agree with this behavior and wanted it to stop and more information comes in, i think you'll hear from him again and maybe, i hope he can touch on ears of folks like van jones who are at least always fair and reasonable and get to the spot where our president said what needed to be said. >> does it bother you if white supremacist groups are praising the president's comments because he didn't call them out? >> well, in a group of, you know, in a country that has hundreds of millions of people, you can always find a few people to say something. you don't see, you know,

hundreds of people saying this is a very small group of people. most communities, my community would ostracize those folks. nobody would have anything to do with those kind of people. i don't think it's a large group of people. a few crazy people you'll find always of different groups, but no mass group i know of that's supporting any individuals. >> i know the southern poverty law center that of course, monitors different hate groups said there's an expectation going into today that this would be the largest gathering, hate gathering, their words, in decades in this country. that doesn't come out of nowhere. >> do we know how many people that was? >> expected up to 6,000 people. that's how many they were anticipated. >> let's say there were 10,000 and 5,000 on each side. in a country with several hundred million people, 5,000 people in the biggest group ever assembled is all they could come up with? that's good news for our

country. >> how is that good news? i'm so sorry, why are we trying to play this off as anything positive that came out of this? can we just say at the end of the day, the president had a perfect opportunity to speak out against white supremacists and white supremacy and he didn't? it's not enough. it's not enough. >> bigotry. spoke out against hatred. >> the most generic tweet followfollo followed by a statement doesn't count. thank goodness the governor stepped in. three americans are dead and the president wrapped up the statement by talking about children having the right to go play with their parents and have a good time. >> thank you for offering different viewpoints. appreciate the discussion. thanks, we'll be right back. when you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, the unpredictability of a flare may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid,

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>> you're live in the cnn newsroom. i'm ana cabrera in new york. a driver now in custody after a car plowed into a group of protesters during what began as a white nationalist rally in charlottesville, virginia. we want to warn you. the video we see is incredibly disturbing. if you have small children in the room, good time to take them away. >> that nazi just drove into people. oh my god. oh my god. oh my god. people are badly hurt. oh my god, badly hurt. badly hurt. we need