white supremacists and neo nazis that sparked the violence will march again. this as we're getting new information in the identity of a driver believe to have driven his car into a crowd of counterprotesters. earlier, there were furious clashes between groups of the nationalists and nazis and people who turned out to counter their message of hate. several people were hurt in these brawls. then this. >> awful, jarring, horrific images. one woman died in this crowd when that karak sell rated into the group of people. they were protesting against the white nationalists. several others were hurt, some other injuries believe tonight to be life-threatening. an awful day for charlottesville, a trying day for america and what some commentators have even called the worst day for president donald trump, not for what he said but what he did not say.

in a statement from his resort in new jersey, the president condemned what he called an ee geegous display of hatred, bigotry and violence from many sides. many sides he said. as of now he has not mentioned the words white supremacists, neonazi or ku klux klan, none of those words out loud, not on twitter. the question is why. we will discuss all of that, but first let's get out to the streets. let's get to charlottesville and get a sense of what's going on. cnn correspondent brian todd is there. brian, what do you see? >> reporter: well, john, we're near the scene of that car strike this afternoon. some rain and lightning occurring now outside as nightfall has come here in charlottesville, but we have late information. you mentioned about a suspect being named. cnn just got this information a short time ago. the suspect we are told is 20-year-old james alex fields. he is from ohio. he was booked into theal albeme

regional jail this afternoon. he it is believed was the driver of the gray sedan that plowed into the crowd here. this is according to the superintendent of the regional jail. this young man, 20-year-old james alex field from ohio, he was booked into the jail. he faces a charge of one count of second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of failure to stop in an accident which resulted in a death. so he is booked in the jail. witness accounts of what happened behind me are just horrific. i'm going to ask our photo journalist jeremy harland to zoom in on the accident scene. the two vehicles that the car struck are still there, the dark honda van that is over my left shoulder, zooming in on it now, and there's a silver sedan right behind it. those two vehicles were struck in the incident. you see a police barricade, a lot of debris there. this is still an active crime scene. police are still processing some evidence from the scene this

evening. also, john, we have learned tonight according to the virginia state police the identities of two people killed in a helicopter crash. they are identified as virginia state police officers h.j. cohen, 48 years old, and 40-year-old burke bates, the trooper pilot. this helicopter, a 407 bell model, went down on old farm road away from the city center. they're investigating the cause of that crash, but necessary th saying this helicopter operated in relation to supporting the operations dealing with the protest today. so governor terry mcauliffe earlier today counted those two men with the casualty earlier, the death earlier of the 32-year-old female bedecember treen. in the governor's eyes that makes three people dead in this horrible day here in charlottesville. we also have an update for you on injuries according to local police and other authorities, five remain in critical condition in local hospitals, four people in serious

condition, six in fair condition, and four in good condition. that's a total of 19 injured, however, we were told earlier that some 35 people were treated for various injuries throughout the course of the day, john. so, again, you know, nightfall has come. the weather has turned not so good. there's lightning and rain now here, so we're going to see what all of this brings for later on this evening, john. >> yeah, rain and bad weather can often help law enforcement in situations like this. brian, it looks quiet thankfully behind you. any sense if these hate groups that were out in fortunes lace night and this morning, if they have plans for tonight? >> we don't have a sense of that, john, but what we do have a sense of is the police deployments out here. i talked to the city manager, maurice jones, not long ago. he said they have more than 700 law enforcement officers including charlottesville police, state police and others deployed in the city tonight. he said they're very, very ready if something else happens. we don't have any word of

marches or anything like that but, again, as you know these things can percolate very quickly and something can spark something else and you can have some violence just, you know, start up very quickly here. so what we also are told is that the police chief of charlottesville, al thomas, has been granted authority to institute a curfew tonight. as of now he has not decided to do that yet, so we'll see if that occurs. again, everyone from the police to the city managers to us here in the media monitoring what is going to happen in the coming hours. >> a curfew available as an option should it be necessary. brian todd, stand by. thank you so much for your reporting. we got a statement a short time ago from former president barack obama. he respondes as we said to the clashes in virginia. this is what he wrote. it was a kwet from nelson mandela. no one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. people must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love, because love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. now, as we mentioned, president

trump has been criticized heavily for his response to this today. he responded first on twitter, and then he made a statement, a public statement from his resort in new jersey. i want to play you a short part of what he said. >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of pate rehatred, bigot violence on many sides, on many sides. it's been going on for a long time in our country. not donald trump, not barack obama, it's been going on for a long, long time. >> on many sides, on many sides, he said. athena jones is near the president's resort. athena, what is the president doing tonight and how does the white house explain the president's statements? >> reporter: hi, john. well, the press pool that was

assigned to follow the president closely today got a lid, what is called a lid sometime ago. so we have no new information on how he's spending the night other than to say it is at his bedminister golf club. that phrase you heard at the independent of the sound byte you played from the president, on many sides, on many sides, this idea that there are many sides to blame for the violence that took place in charlottesville, that has raised a lot of concern and gotten a lot of criticism. i asked several white house officials what he meant when he said that. this is what the official told me. they said the president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides, there was violence between protesters and counterprotesters today. certainly there was violence between protesters and counterprotesters today, but many people argue that the president is equating those who were marching with confederate flags with nazi sim blems, some

wearing nazi arm bands and some carrying trump signs and make america hats, there's concern the president was equating those people with the people protesting that sort of racial -- that sort of racism and white supremacy. what is so interesting here is what the president did not say. we've been focusing on that the last several hours, but you can't overstate the fact this is a president who has passionately criticized a long list of people on twitter and off while president and as a candidate. he has criticized his former rival, hillary clinton, fellow republicans from majority leader mitch mcconnell to senator john mccain to his own attorney general jeff sessions, not to mention the former fbi director james comey and the current special counsel bob mueller and, of course, the news media sometimes by name, calling the media the enemy of the people. yet not on that list, john, is nazis or neo nazis or white supremacists or white nationalists. in fact, he didn't even use those phrases in his remarks

today. this is bipartisan criticism we are seeing, a condemnation i could say of the president's lack of condemnation. from the likes of utah republican senator orrin hatch who wrote on twitter, we should call evil by his name. my brother didn't give his life fighting hitler for nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. another republican of colorado, senator cory gardner, said something similar on twitter, saying, mr. president, we must call evil by its name. these were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism. those are two examples of several republicans including john mccain and others like jeb bush and marco rubio who have used the terms white supremacy or white nationalist to talk about this. you have a president calling for unity, a lot of folks questioning how can you begin to bring people together if you won't use this terminology, call it by its name. this from a man who criticized obama and folks for not using the term islamic terrorism, now

refusing to use the term white nationalist. i have asked several where the president stands on white nationalism and whether he plans to make a statement condemning these groups at any point. i haven't gotten an answer from them. we should note the president was asked as he was leaving that brief press, and he ignored the shouted questions. >> athena jones for us in new jersey. notable, the president's statement was at 3:30 p.m. eastern time. he's had five-and-a-half hours to amend them and say something about white supremacy or the clan if he wanted to respond to the criticism of the likes of senator gardner. he has chosen not to do so. we will talk about why maybe later on. i want to bring in the vice mayor of charlottesville. wes bellamy joins me now. thank you for being with us right now. we appreciate you being here.

give me a sense of the situation in charlottesville right now. >> thank you. thanks again for having me. before i address the situation in charlottesville i just want our entire community, our city as well as the country to know that the images which you saw today do not define nor reflect who we are as a city or community or a commonwealth for that matter. we will be stronger after these actions. we will continue to rise and rally together, and i have the utmost confidence that the people that i know of the city of charlottesville will lock arms, will rally together, will support each other and we will come out stronger because of this. now to your question. in regards to the feelings around the city, i think people are obviously very sad. i would also like to express my sincere condolences to those who lost their lives. i'm extremely disappointed and my heart and gratitude goes out to them. but i think there's also a tale of two cities. earlier today even while the protests and counterprotest was

going on i was at a park in our city in which a group of young people gave away nearly 150 book bags and school supplies to kids in the communities. i think that represents charlottesville. even in the midst of adversity, we find a way to take care of our own and give back. >> do you expect there to be any more flare ups of violence tonight? any sense there will be more marches, counter-marches, things like that? >> one thing i have learned is that in these kind of scenarios and situations you have to expect the unexpected. i am praying to god and hoping that the community, the country, everyone else will also pray that everyone will remain safe, people stay home and the violence ceases. but also putting our faith in our police department as well as my faith in god and hoping that cooler heads will prevail. >> mr. vice mayor, do you have any information about the suspect now in custody, the man believe to have been behind the wheel of that car that plowed into the crowd of counterprotesters? we are told his identity is

james alex fields, 20 years old, a white male from ohio. do you have anymore information about him? >> no, sir, i do not at this time. >> we also understand, we know that one person, a 32-year-old woman was killed, many others, more than a dozen others injured. any updates of the condition of the people who have been hurt? >> no, sir, not at liberty to speak on that at this time. but, again, my condolences goes out to the family of those who lost their lives, and we're praying for a speedy recovery of those injured. i think it is important to notate this white supremacy. we're not going to call it white nationalism or pretend these are guys that wanted to come down here and protest a statue removal. this white supremacy will not be tolerated, and our community now has the opportunity to continue to stand together, denounce these supremacist acts and domestic terrorist acts and call it for what it is. i hope if we can come together now -- if we can't come together after seeing all of these people

come here and try to violate our community, if we can't come together now i don't know when we will. but my belief is that we will. i know that we will. not only will we win, but we will stand together and do it together. >> how important is it for you to say those words and to hear those words? we heard it from governor terry mcauliffe. we did not hear it from the president of the united states. >> did the president say it? >> he did not say -- >> he didn't. >> -- neo nazi, ku klux klan or white supremacy, he did not say it. how important do you think it is to say that? >> it tells you what we need to know about 45. i think it is important for us to call these individuals for what they are. your heard the governor as well as our mayor say exactly those words, and we have all been using those terms. these individuals are white supremacists. these individuals claim their patriots or they're defending "our land," their land. they believe no one not of the

pure white race or no one who doesn't look like them deserves to have a stake or a say in our community, and it is just not true. we're not going to have it. listen, i'm going to be very blunt and very honest with you here. i stand here as only the seventh african-american elect in our city's history, the only african-american on our city council and the youngest person ever elect. i want our community to know, even with all of those things we will not be intimidated. my mayor, who is a jewish man, he will not be intimidated. my fellow colleagues on city council, ms. cristie seiko, ms. cathie gallo, will not be intimidated. these will not prevent us from bringing equity throughout the city. that's the message we will send. >> wes bellamy, the vice mayor of charlottesville. have a calm and peaceful night. >> dr. bellamy. i just finished my dissertation.

shout out to vsu. >> anyone who finishes a dissertation deserves that respect. dr. bellamy, con gralt lagss for that. thank you for being with us tonight. again, we wish you a calm and peaceful night. we are watching the streets of h charlottesville, virginia, where at least one died, 19 more injured in flares of violence sparked by neo nazis and white supremacists. stay with cnn. we will be right back. by lexus. experience unparalleled luxury at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. ♪ ♪

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♪ you came here today to hurt people. you did hurt people. 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. >> that was virginia governor terry mcauliffe there, calling out by name the white supremacists, the neo nazis, the ku klux klan members who were on the streets as of last night and throughout the day, sparking the

violence that claimed the lives of one 32-year-old woman plus two people on a helicopter later on dachlt joining me to discuss this, cnn ed tore at large, cliz aliz aerks, van jones, joshua green, author, and scott jennings, former special assistant in the bush white house. van, i want to start with you. we are sitting here now after dark in charlottesville. what has been going on there has been going on for more than 24 hours. i want you to reflect for a moment on what we have seen. >> well, the one thing that we've seen is we've seen an american citizen lose her life because she decided she wanted to stand against hatred. the idea that nazis are marching in american streets with torches would be shocking to our grandparents who did all they could to stop nazis. you know, dr. king gave his life to stop the klan. every parent raises their kid --

every responsible parent -- not to hate people based on the color of their skin. you have people marching against everything this country stood for. somebody gets up this morning and says, i want to go and bear witness and they lost their life, an american citizen killed today apparently by a nazi, and the president of the united states does not honor her, does not mention the fact that she was killed and, unfortunately, missed an important opportunity to send a clear signal that america is not a safe haven for nazis, for klansters, for all of that. y . i want to say one more thing. the idea someone would take someone's life to save a statue -- let's be clear, it is all over the decision of a city to remove a statue of someone who, whatever historical role he played, he was a traitor to his country, a traitor to america. they want that statue down. to save a statue, someone took a human life.

that's where we are in america, and the president has a tremendous responsibility to do more than he did today. >> what van jones is talking about is this is all based around the removal of a statue of robert e. lee in charlottesville. the legislature there called for the removal of that statue. it has not been removed yet. these were protests staged by white supremacists groups to keep the statue there. we should note this 20 year old, james alex field, from ohio, has been charged with murder. we don't more about him. we don't know if he is a white supremacist. we are waiting to learn more about the motivations there. chris eliza, to van jones' point, you wrote a piece this evening about the response which you feel fell well short from the president of the united states. >> yeah. i mean we look to presidents -- not every day, sometimes not every week, maybe once a year at times, in moments like these to

lead, to be the best of us, to say we mourn this loss, we speak out against this hate-filled bigotry. but i know we're better than this. what donald trump did was -- and you played the clip earlier. to me it is stunning. essentially he said, hey, look, both sides -- you know, both sides do this. no, there isn't another side here. there's hate-filled bigots who, as van said, discriminate against people based on how they look or what they believe, and then there's people that say, "we don't believe in that." there's not -- he is trying to fit it on to -- he, trump, is trying to fit it on to a political continuum. conservatives say this, liberals say that and who knows who is right. we have a lot of conversations like that on our airwaves, and that's fine, but this is not that thing. when you do that you give cover. you say -- you equate them quite

literally, while the counterprotesters and protests were both bad, there's no evidence to suggest that's true. i think it is really dangerous. i think the whole not donald trump to blame, not barack obama to blame, that's a preemptive attempt to get himself away from being blamed for creating this culture in which people -- with these abhorent views feel comfortable airing them in public and gathering to air them. all of that stuff, it just misses the mark by so much. then going into, we've had a lot of good things happen. i'm renegotiating our trade deals. this is not the moment to talk about trade deals, right? i understand he probably had a speech prepared. you scrap that, you give a short speech that says essentially, this is not who we are, this is white supremacists, these are intolerant, hate-filled bigots, and this is not us, period, the end, and you leave. the fact that he went through a whole other speech -- i mean it

is the least of the bad things he did in that address, but it is not good. i just thought it was a total failure of presidential leadership candidly, at a moment when you need it, john. >> and we should note that speech was about 3:30, which is about six hours ago right now. he's had six hours to revise and extend his remarks, while he's probably been watching cable tv because we know he does that, listening to this criticism, looking at the statements from republican senators -- >> that's right. >> -- including john mccain, orrin hatch, cory gardner, scott jennings, who came out and flat out said -- he flat-out said, mr. president, you have to call this what it is, you have to say white supremacists should not have the platform to do what they did. scott jennings, you know, why and how did this happen? did the president fall short here, scott? >> yeah, i was disappointed with the president today. you know, there are moments in the last seven months since he's been the president that he's actually risen to the occasion. i think back to the scalise

shooting after the congressional baseball practice. he hit the right tone and mark following that shooting. i was hoping he would do that today. i think they made a mistake by trying to cram the charlottesville shooting into another event. think were planning to sign a bill on the va. i think he would have scrapped that, waited 30 minutes and gathered facts on the person that lost their life and included that in the speech. one thing i think republicans -- and you are seeing it in a lot of republican statements, they want donald trump to feel the mantle of lincoln. the republican party is the party of abraham lincoln. historically, we need to get this right as a fwogop, as a republican party. he's a republican president. he has to get this right. tomorrow, the next day, whatever happens in the aftermath here, he has to come back and condemn

the people -- if you are marching around the streets of united states and you are carrying a nazi flag, you're not on a political continuum i recognize as an american. you're not a patriot. your views do not matter to me. >> amen, brother. >> that's what the president needs to say. that's what everybody wants him to say and i think he has it in him to do that and i hope he gets there. >> it is the lowest of bars to condemn neo nazis and white supremacists. stand by. i believe we got in the mug shot of the suspect. this is james alex fields, 20 years old from ohio. we really don't know anything else about him other than the fact he is being held and charged with murder right now for the death of this woman. but we do not know if he was marching in any way, if he was

connected to the groups that were there over the last 24 hours. that is one of the key questions we will be looking into over the next several hours. josh green, back to this conversation we're having because you have a remarkable perspective that might shine some light on what was said and not said by the president of the united states today, because i think we have to assume this was a choice. this wasn't an omission, oh, i forgot to mention white supremacists or neo nazis. it seems it was a deliberate omission. you just wrote a book which is getting a lot of attention right now about the campaign and the role of steve bannon in this campaign. obviously steve bannon, you know, formerly ran brightbart.com and also someone who admitted that he was giving a platform to the alt-right. i'm going the try to read this off the screen right now. steve bannon in your book, you quoted him as talking about the various racist dog whistles that critics have accused donald trump of using and the racial

politics he played perhaps with the birther movement. can we put it on the screen so i can read it. steve bannon basically said, "we pulled the race stuff and it doesn't matter." >> that's right. >> what did it tell you? >> to give you the context here, the passage i'm talking about in the book, this was a scene from october 2016 right after hillary clinton, the democratic nominee, gave a speech condemning the alt-right. it was the first time i think a lot of americans heard the term, and clinton in her speech connected it to steve bannon, to neo nazis, white supremacists, anti-semites, and expected it to have a negative effect on trump because obviously these are abhorent views. what bannon was say anything the book is the campaign polled this and it turned out clinton's speech really didn't hurt trump's poll numbers. as i say i think in the next paragraph, in fact clinton's lead narrowed after she gave that speech. i think two points to make here in regard to charlottesville.

number one, trump is just loath to criticize his supporters. we saw that throughout the campaign when his supporters were beating up protesters and doing things like that. only grudgingly would trump say anything negative about them, and often he didn't say anything negative at all. the other point here is that the alt-right white supremacists and neo nazis like we saw in charlottesville today are a part of trump's supporters. they just are. most of the people at that rally who were marching with klan flags and confederate flags and nazi flags were trump supporters. i think that's why we saw such a morally deficient statement from trump today. >> let's be clear, you know, josh is not suggesting here for a second that all donald trump supporters are those things, any one of those things. but, scott jennings, do you think that the president and the white house has made that calculation that there are these groups who do support him? and i'm not going to read it

because i don't have it with me, but "the daily stormer" which is the publication put out by some of the white supremacists group, they were praising the statement of the president of the united states because they felt it hit all of the marks that they wanted to see hit, which was to equate the violence, to put it all on the same plane today, scott. so is this something that you think the white house is actively playing with? >> well, i think it is something the white house needs to understand, is that there are people in this country -- and we saw them today -- who are trading on donald trump's name, and that's a very bad thing for this white house and they ought not to let it continue. i vacillated today on whether i thought the president should call them out personally or if he should maybe have one of his senior advisers do it, but at some point this white house needs to make clear if you are at this rally and you are carrying around a nazi flag and you're out there saying, i'm coming in the name of donald trump, we're coming to fill the promises of donald trump, you're not one of my people, i don't

represent you, you don't represent me. the white house absolutely needs to make that clear. >> let me ask -- >> i don't know if the president should elevate it by saying their names because i don't want them to get anymore publicity than they have gotten, but i want the white house to make it clear, you don't speak for me, for the republican party and you don't speak for the office of the president of the united states. >> van jones. >> i would add to that. i think that's exactly right and amen to that. also, i think you have to remember, when you take someone's life, when you use violence in pursuit of a political agenda, there's a word for that. the word for that is terrorism. this was an act of terrorism in the united states today that took the life of an american citizen who as best we can tell was just expressing herself in opposition to hatred. that person was killed. that person's life was taken. as best we can tell, it was an act of terrorism. can you imagine if after ft. hood when a muslim shot up a bunch of americans a president came out and said, well, there's violence on many sides, you

would have had complete pandemonium in this country because we don't tolerate these false equivalence when there's an act of terrorism. or, for instance, when there was a black lives matter and some nut job went and shot up a bunch of people. the president came out -- we weren't debating whether president obama was for or against that. these are those moments, not just about hatred but about terrorism, that you need the president of the united states to be absolutely crystal clear because you have to send a signal throughout the body politic that this kind of violence cannot become normalized and he failed to do that. this is a guy who said he hates terrorism, except not today. >> of course, cillizza, to remind people here, president trump was critical, is to this day critical of former president obama for not using the words "radical islamic terrorist." >> absolutely. >> it is not as if he has not laid down a marker and said words matter when you are

talking about these type of things. >> there's no question. look, it is difficult for me to think that there was a decision -- that there was not a decision rather made not to say white supremacists, not to say kkk, not to say neo nazis. to me it is the easiest thing in the world. clearly when you are holding a nazi flag, i don't need to interview you about your views. it seems pretty clear what they are. so he didn't do that, and i think it was purposeful. the fact that you play that statement, he says, "on many sides, on many sides." the repetition of it, that's something he clearly believes, that this is -- well, on the one hand there were protesters, on that hand there were protests, who could know who is in the right or wrong. that's the problem. josh put the world "moral" in there and i think that's important. this is not -- i'm a political reporter, i spend most of my time talking about politics, i get that. this is about right and wrong. let's go back. remember, context matters, too.

remember the four or five days during the campaign where donald trump refused to disassociate himself from david duke who, by the way, was at that rally today and, by the way, claimed he was doing so in the name of fulfilling donald trump's agenda. you have to understand that there is not -- there's not sort of like, well, a lot of people disagree about white supremacists. no, we don't, right? like it is not -- that is not a -- people can disagree about many things, tax policy, notice, whatever you like. this is not that. i think the problem for him is he just doesn't like -- doesn't like to be told what to do and then sort of freelances and says things or chooses not to say things, and he's the president. we always wondered this during the campaign. he is the president of the united states. people look to him -- van mentioned this. people will look to the president in moments of crisis, in moments in which we feel like we need leadership. and when you do what he did in that speech -- to your point, john, for six plus hours say nothing else, and the reason he

said nothing else is because that's what he wanted to say. you know, you send a very dangerous and chilling message, you just do. >> one point here, what chris was talking there is jake tapper interviewed then candidate trump early on in the campaign and donald trump chose not to interview david duke and took several days to clean it up. david duke has been playing a high level of footsy. recited or unrequited, i believe we have sound from david duke today. let's listen to that. >> this represents a turning point for the people of this country. we are determined to take our country back. we're going to fulfill the promise also of donald trump. that's what we believed in, that's why we voted for donald trump, because he said he's going to take our country back. >> fulfill the promises of donald trump. again, josh green, you know, i

don't think david -- i don't think david duke speaks for the president of the united states, but he speaks of the president of the united states. it is something to see over the course of a day. >> well, and the president could be a lot clearer about who david duke speaks for by coming out and condemning the fact he is at his rally and condemning the fact that david duke says he is there to carry out trump's agenda. i think that's the problem. it is worth pointing out furthermore this is a trump problem. it is not a republican problem. >> correct. >> you have seen very strong statements that specifically condemn white supremacy from people like orrin hatch. you had new jersey governor chris christie before the violence today condemning these kind of white supremacist views. so it is not as though he didn't have plenty of cover from his own party to come out and say, this is wrong, there's no place in our party or in my movement for white supremacists and neo nazis, and yet trump hasn't managed to do that. >> and, of course, again to

point out that marco rubio and cory gardner, you know, republican senators have called out and been critical of the president for not using those words. van, i cut you off. sorry. >> i think sometimes we act as if the only thing that matters are the words and the language when you say something, and that's important. but there's a policy implication we have not talked about enough, which is you have an administration that when it comes to counterterrorism has been reported as moving resources away from these white supremacist hate groups and focusing solely or almost exclusively on radical islam. it is not just you have a president who kind of forgets to point out terrorism when it is white nationalist groups, you have him at a policy level taking his eyes off these haters, taking his eyes off these murderers, taking his eyes off the soldest terrorist groups in the country. the oldest terrorist group is not isis, they're brand-new. the oldest terrorist group in the world -- certainly in the united states, is the ku klux klan. there's a policy now to take the

eyes of the federal government off of these people. so that's part of what -- why you have so much concern. if you say, look, i'm not going to call you a terrorist, i'm not going to say white supremacist, i'm not going to say neonazi, i'm not going to mention your name, i'm not going to call you a thug, i'm not going to do anything and move the eyes of law enforcement off of you, you are beginning to send signals that this kind of stuff is okay at a policy level as well as a rhetorical level, and that's dangerous in america. i am very proud that republicans have done an extraordinary job today of coming out. donald trump is actually away from his party with now putin apparently, with white supremacists. these are the kind of things that begin to worry people. i think donald trump's white house needs to take a strong look at his positioning and get him back with his party and his country. >> all right, guys. stick around. stand by, if you will. there's a lot more to discuss. we're having a political discussion right now. don't want to ignore the tragedy that's taking place in

charlottesville, virginia. one woman killed, 32 years old, plowed down on the streets during these clashes parked by white supremacists, and then two people also killed responding in a helicopter. so three people dead. well over a dozen injured, and we have our eyes on charlottesville tonight to see if there's a new flare-up of violence. cnn's special live coverage continues right after this. (vo) unlimited is only as good as the network it's on. and only one network can be the best...

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♪ all right. john berman here. this is cnn special live coverage of the events in charlottesville, virginia, events that left three dead including one 32-year-old woman killed at the scene you are laing at right now. those are live pictures from the streets of charlottesville where a 32-year-old woman was mowed down by a vehicle. there is a suspect now in custody charged with second degree murder. that is the man now in custody, james alex fields, 20 years old from ohio. we do not know if he was connected to the neo nazis and white supremacists who spark the violence over the last 24 hours in charlottesville, violence that's been condemned from all over the country, all over the world, from every political spectrum by name, from most parts, though not all parts, and we will talk about that. we heard from democratic congressman donald mckeechen,

who wrote, all must be welcomed here, because our diversity is why we thrive. he joins me by phone. we are looking at pictures from the day, the violence that flared up in charlottesville. congressman, your reaction tonight to the last 24 hours? >> well, it's been a nightmare. you know, i went to school in charlottesville. that's where i met my wife in law school, and to see that wonderful city and our state in this light is just horrifying. these folks come from out of the state with their hatred and their bigotry and left a very bad taste in the mouth of all virginians. >> a very bad taste in the mouth of all virginians. we are watching these pictures again. this took place over the course of the day, and i believe these pictures were even before the car plowed into that crowd,

killing that woman. president trump did come out today in a statement condemning hatred, condemning violence, though he condemned it for what he called "many, many sides." do you believe it is important for the president of the united states to use the words white supremacists, neo nazis? >> absolutely. you know, the president of the united states has to be crystal clear on this. there can be no ambiguity. just like in the last segment, you said that the president was critical of president obama for not saying the words radical islamic terrorist, well, these are white supremacists. they need to be called out by name. they need to be repudiated by name. for him to give this sort of bland statement does no good. >> you know, it is interesting because one of the discussions leading into these protests were do they have a right, should they be allowed to march and protest. our constitution does protect

free speech. there have been many people who fought for the rights of these hate groups to say what they want to say out loud. dow believe necessary should have the right to march? the right to march and to speak is very different than the right to violence. >> yeah, you know, my father was an army veteran and he raised me to believe in the first amendment. that's why he put his life on the line for this country and, yes, everyone has the right to speak. even though i may not want to hear what you have to say, you have the right to speak. what you don't have the right to do is incite violence, and that's what these people did. >> congressman donald mceachin of virginia. thank you for being with us tonight. again, we are watching the streets of charlottesville tonight. so far peaceful, but we're waiting to see what the reaction will be from some of the hate groups that have been there over the last 24 hours. will they march again? cnn special live coverage continues after this. ♪

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police in charlottesville, virginia, have identified the man who plowed a car into a crowd of people, protesting a white nationalist rally. the car killed one person and critically injured several more. officials say the driver is james alexfields junior, 20 years old. he is from ohio, and tonight he is charged with second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, one count of failure to stop at an accident resulting in death. all right. let us discuss this and the events of the day. the tragic events of the day. senator alexander is deputy mayor of rochester, new york, and the. james galliano, former fbi supervisory agent. let's talk about the charges. what do the charges tell us

right now? second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding. we know his identity, we don't know if he's tied to a white supremacist group. what does that mean? >> well, in this particular case, you had people who were severely injured. i can only imagined not being a legal counsel, i can only imagine under virginia law, there were some law that would cover those who were injured as a result of that. >> second degree murder, does that require some level of intent? >> it requires some level of intent but here again, it varies from state to state. in the state of virginia, clearly, there was intent to do harm. why it's not a first degree murder charge is probably a question more appropriate for a legal counsel. but nevertheless, that is a serious charge under these circumstances. >> so james, i don't mean to throw this on you right now but we're getting statements all

across the political spectrum, politicians weighing in what happened and what they think should happen. senator ted cruz, republican from texas, one-time opponent of president trump, though has been supportive of him in the white house. he wrote i urge the department of justice to the immediately lid investigate and prosecute this is the grotesque act of domestic terrorism right now. what would be the signatures of a doj investigation? >> john, i always want to caution politicians or anybody. they take a look at an incident from a law enforcement perspective and jump to conclusions. it's very dangerous to do. you got to wait till the facts come in. i think with what we know right now and i think he would agree with me on this, the definition of terrorism, violence or intimidation in the pursuit of political or social goals or aims, this clearly could fall into that. now, was this a deranged man, an outlier, somebody who showed up? we have problems all the time with copycats, folks that show up and want to get into some kind of business, or was this

somebody as you pointed out earlier, this was premeditated, was part of that organization whether or not he was a white nationalist or part of the neo-nazi movement that decided to do that. that's how they make the determination what type of charges. >> what would you want as a former law enforcement officer? when would can you want the federal government to step in? >> here's the situation. i stated this earlier and been stating this throughout the day. if we look at what occurred out there and look at the video, we look at the individuals that were involved, it was very violent in nature. it was premeditated. we knew that the night before. there was violent rhetoric going on that led to today's episode. what i would strongly suggest to the governor and to the local representatives there in chartsville is that they request from the president and the attorney general, jeff sessions, that an investigation be opened because you have some very evident hate crimes that took

place here today in number regardless of what side it may have occurred on. you had that take place. but here's what we do know. we had hate groups, kkk, alt-right, neo-nazi groups that were there bitterly and openly and angrily attacked people. >> self-proclaimed neo-nazis. it's not like there's a mystery who they were. what we don't know if this individual james alex fields was one of them. ted cruz calling for a doj investigation. interesting what his motivations are there. we'll talk about that perhaps later. james, we got another interesting statement from admiral james richardson. he's the chief of naval operations. what makes this interesting is this is a military officer, someone in the chain of command. not someone who makes political statements. he called the events. charlottesville shameful abunacceptable. he said the navy will forever

stand against intolerance and hatred. you're someone who worked for the federal government. again, you wouldn't make a political statement, but i suppose calling these crimes hateful and shameful should be political. >> i mean, john, you have to look at it from this perspective. calling it white nagsism nationalism is a benign euphemism. this group's origins are in hate. we start with that. what disturbed me was noticing how this group decided to conduct their you know, their parade. they were wearing ballistic shields. think had on kevlar. some of them were dressed like military folks. i was in afghanistan in 2002. they were dressed like folks that were over there in afghanistan, folks that are the real snake eaters folks out there working on behalf of the united states government. i thought it was shameful. that makes it is disconcerting. you've got an area like virginia

where you can have a weapon in public that you can carry a weapon legally if it's exposeded in public like that. and when you get people like that clashing with the counter protesters, if this is indicator where we're going, if there's going fob more of these, i see bad things coming. > james, thank you. we're watching the streets of charlottesville. you were here tore analyze the law enforcement response. this is from earlier today. obviously you see daylight there. it is dark now. it is nighttime. the weather has turned perhaps a little ugly on the streets there. we do not know if there are any demonstrations planned. we're hoping for a peaceful night. our special coverage of the violence in virginia continues right after this. um... i'm babysitting. that'll be $50 bucks. you said $30. yeah, well it was $30 before my fees, like the pizza-ordering fee and the dog-sitting fee... and the rummage through your closet fee. are those my heels? yeah! yeah, we're the same size... in shoes.

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this is cnn breaking news. all right. john berman here. you're watching cnn's special live coverage of the violence in virginia. police have now been given the authority to institute a curfew in charlottesville after a day of violent clashes, sparked by white supremacists and neo-nazis, members of the klan marching and then counterprotests against them. there was this fighting you're looking at in the streets right now. and then there was this. a car plowing into a crowd. our streets. our streets.