charlottesville and i understand you have been talking to witnesses of this just horrible car incident plowing into innocent bystanders. >> reporter: yes, i actually spoke to a man who watched the entire thing happen. this was a three-car accident and he watched as at least five, maybe six people, he tells me, were hit by a car. it seems that people who were in the streets, in the area at the time, were rushing to be by those people's sides before they were able to get some medical attention. right now, virginia state police is saying through social media that there were multiple injuries, but he said that he watched as the car plowed into the people and then actually pulled away. right now, where i am standing, there are police barricades, a very active scene. you can actually hear the state police chopper overhead from where i am, but right now, just witnesses on the street, they're trying to clear as many people out of the street as possible, but two of those vehicles are

actually still here on the scene. it looks like a van and a sedan of some sort here. you can see that the sedan, the car, rear ended the van that was out here and again another car was involved that sped away and hearing that police actually were able to catch up with that car at one point. but the scene is not quite as active as it was, but still, people out here just trying to figure out what's going on and figure out what happened to those people who were hit out there. >> that is the critical question. what did happen out there, whether or not this was intentional, as jim cavanaugh, our law enforcement expert has indicated, it certainly looks as such. we now have information into nbc news that we do expect the president of the united states, donald trump, to address what is going on and what has played out in charlottesville this morning during his remarks at his golf resort in new jersey. we see a group of people have gathered behind the presidential podium for what we anticipate to be a bill signing, but we also see the presidential podium

there. i want to go to nbc's kelly o'donnell who is with the president in bridgewater, new jersey, near the president's golf resort. kelly, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, we can tell you that i've spoken to white house officials who say the president will use this opportunity to address the nation on the issue that has been playing out in charlottesville. that was not the original intent of today's event. this is going to be a bill signing related to veterans affairs, and the president had intended that this would be a more celebratory event where he would sign legislation and talk about some of the people who have been invited to bedminster who are members of veterans groups. now it takes on a different tone and this is a real challenge for the president, who in his six months in office, has not had in kind of an incident where there is a sudden violent and upsetting event that has much larger implications in terms of the national dialogue and conversation and all the things

that it represents. it's a very potent event that draws deep feelings for people watching this at home and certainly people in the charlottesville community. that's a challenge for the president to try to use the bully pulpit for a moment of sending a message, trying to provide calm, trying to offer reassurance. this is not a role that the president has frequently played. in twitter, he used his twitter feed today to put out an initial statement. it was one that did not specifically reference charlottesville at first. in a later tweet, he did reference charlottesville. he did not talk about the racial undertones of what has played out today. far more than undertones in many instances of what played out today so it is rhetorically a challenge for the president. it is a challenge because there is another topic that he wants to emphasize, and based on watching him over the last few days, we expect the president may want to take some questions, and so those guests who you

pointed to, jacob, who have been invited to be a part of this bill signing may also be a part of an event that takes on broader ramifications, so much of what we've been talking about the last few days has been north korea and global events, and this is what it means to be president of the united states. there are times where there are unexpected incidents that require a president to be engaged. we know that the department of homeland security and the president's personal homeland security adviser have been in touch with the relevant law enforcement in virginia. the white house has contacted the governor of virginia, terry mcauliffe, through his chief of staff. we don't have an indication yet if the president has been able to speak to terry mcauliffe directly. they most recently were together for a commissioning of a ship in norfolk, virginia, so they have been together recently. and this will be an opportunity for the president to try to address some of the concerns that have brought a lot of political heart ache and

emotional heartache with especially elements of what we have seen today in terms of the white nationalists and some of the angry rhetoric, that there have been people from that community in this country who have been political supporters of the president. he has denounced them at times, but they have been attracted to him. and that makes this a very challenging moment for the president. we don't yet know if he will have additional information about specifics with those who have been injured or any arrests or some of the law enforcement details that he would have more immediate access to because of the situation room and his top officials who would be in direct contact with any relevant law enforcement in charlottesville. we'll watch and see how it unfolds. we'll see if the president's willing to take questions on this and to what degree will he denounce what has taken place here. he's put out a message of coming together and respect ariing oth but we'll have to see how fully he takes on this issue and how

he handles a moment like this where the country often looks to a president to send a message and set a tone. >> kelly, speak more to that if you can as we await the president. we expect him to arrive here at that podium in a matter of moments in bedminster, new jersey, to address the nation about what we are seeing unfold in charlottesville. the idea of race, the president in his tweet today did not specifically mention the word racism. he did say hate. he said, we must all be united and condemn all that hate stands for. there is no place for this kind of violence in america, let's come together as one. getting a statement like this from the president of the united states when he was candidate of the united states was not easy, kelly, as you can attest to, having covered the campaign as closely as you did. >> reporter: well, this is a challenge as well for the president, not only in the voice that he wants to bring to this, but clearly his team has had to try to assess this situation, try to have a -- an appropriate level of assigning responsibility for what has taken place here and how much

they want to address that. so, someone in a speech-writing capacity is having to help the president craft this message, and how far do they want to go in labeling these events while they are still unfolding and before official assessments of what has taken place can be fully evaluated. observers have described the racial strife that played out in charlottesville today. this had been an event that was, in some ways, previewed and there was a build-up toward it, which of course attracted protesters and counterprotesters. there's a deep history that moved some of the people who were initially involved in this, and then you've got law enforcement. i would imagine one safe for the president to turn in his remarks today is to thank and appreciate law enforcement. one of his challenges is to try to be healing without alienating and without assigning blame prematurely. those kinds of things can be challenging for a president in this moment.

the core of what a president is looked to for in this situation is to try to be of aid to the state and the governor involved, to try to send a message to the people in the community, and more broadly, and to lead by some kind of example. and that is always a challenge for a president. and this is new terrain for this president, and it is complicated by the racial and political dynamics that we've talked about here, the alt-right has, in many instances, embraced donald trump as a candidate and as president. david duke was a part of these events, and the president has denounced him in the past. but this is a challenge, and this can't be simply batted away when you're president of the united states. people will expect him to have a thoughtful message, and this is a test. >> and not only that, kelly, you know, over the course of this campaign, the campaign, i should say, in 2016, the president's campaign briefly seated a white nationalist, a man by the name of william johnson from out here

in los angeles as a delegate to the republican national convention, the campaign obviously quickly removed him from that position, but he -- the president, as a candidate, had to put out fires all the time when it came to accusations of racism and otherwise as a campaign, we all recall hillary clinton making that speech in nevada about the alt-right and the president's adviser steve bannon's role in fanning the flames of this type of hateful dialogue that we see playing out on the streets of charlottesville today. one thing, i think, kelly, you make a very interesting point, the president may come out there and sing the praises of law enforcement, but as far as i can recall, one of the last times the president did that, he created quite a controversy when he spoke on long island regarding the gang ms-13, encouraging members of law enforcement to rough up suspects, and that is language that i think it's fair to say will not sit well with the counterprotesters out there today. >> reporter: yes, and that's part of the challenge for the

president is times his personal style and his bravado is not what a moment like this may demand, and i think he's also had a problem in his own situation with his campaign and the orbit around the president where using social media, they have, at times, retweeted or highlighted communications that have come from people who are a part of the alt-right community or the white supremacist nationalist community, and that is something that then draws more attention. there are those who believe the president's rhetoric, his political style, the two years of his life in national politics, have, in some ways, fueled some of these feelings. there are those who believe that he should be assigned some responsibility for the political culture of the day. those are things the president is not typically comfortable addressing, and he might challenge that notion, but certainly, there are many in the country who argue that he bears some responsibility, not in these specific events, but in

the larger political culture. these are complex, difficult issues. they bring out a lot of emotions for people, and this is a challenge for the president. >> that's right, kelly, and it was only after the election in november of 2016 that the president came out and disavowed the alt-right and white nationalists in that editorial page interview with the "new york times." it took him quite a long time, as you mentioned, the disavow the former grand wizard of the ku klux klan, david duke, and you know, this has all come full circle where members of the ku klux klan and last night were out on the streets of charlottesville, virginia, holding tiki torches, believe it or not, as part of their protests of the removal of this statue of the confederate general, robert e. lee. i'd like to quickly reset, as we wait for the president here and explain to everybody what is going on. over the course of the last 24 hours, we have seen protests on the streets of charlottesville, virginia, where members of the

alt-right, white nationalists, many would call white supremacists have been out. you're looking at pictures of those torches i just mentioned right now, at the university of virginia right now, protesting the removal of the statue of the confederate general in an area that has an ignoble history of slavery. those protests continued and were met with counterprotests from both the clergy, black lives matter activists, anti-fascist organizations and they devolved into violence, and then just late this afternoon, another incident, far more tragic, and potentially one that could have severe consequences, a car plowed into a group of those counterprotesters with what the images indicate are severe injuries for people that are there on the scene. maya rodriguez, nbc news producer, has been following this situation on the scene of that car crash. we don't know if that crash was

a deadly one, but we do know that many were injured, correct? >> reporter: that's right, jacob. i mean, i personally, when i got to the scene, saw at least six people being loaded into ambulances here, so at least a half dozen injured, and i'm talking about people being loaded on stretchers, some of them did not look to be, frankly, in great condition. i don't know if you can see over my shoulder here, but that is actually the accident scene, at least part of the accident scene, because from what we understand from police, there were at least three different vehicles involved in what happened here. now, it's not clear yet whether one of those two or neither of those two was actually involved in the actual plowing into the crowd that witnesses described. i mean, we saw people, you know, crying, telling us, listen, this was a terrible situation, we could not believe that somebody plowed into the crowd and then another witness told us, once the car actually plowed in, they actually went in reverse and hit people as they were pulling back

out. so, it was almost like the crowd was hit twice out here. you can see that they've done a pretty good job of clearing the scene here. police moving all of the counterprotesters that have been out here earlier. they have now put up barricades. this is an active investigation as police try to piece together exactly what happened out here. >> nbc news correspondent maya rodriguez, i appreciate it. do we still have mariana sotomayor with us on the street where the car crash happened? unfortunately, we don't have mariana sotomayor, the nbc producer who witnessed the aftermath of the incident. but jim cavanaugh, our nbc's law enforcement analyst is still with us and has watched this day play out as we have in realtime. jim, i'd like us to all take a look at the video that we saw just moments ago of when this car plowed into the group of counterprotesters. this is something -- this is the aftermath that we're looking at

right now, but we're going to cue that up and show it to everybody. as we've watched this play out, as the details have emerged over the course of this afternoon, where are things as far as you're concerned? >> yeah, it really looks intentional, jacob. what you show in that video and i think if you slow that video down, you'll probably see it clearer. and i tried to go on the web and look at some other pictures of this charger. you see it there backing up, the silver charger. and it actually flies down the street and strikes pedestrians before it hits the two vehicles that are -- that you see damaged later. it flies down. the pedestrians actually fly in the air, over the hood of the car, and then it slams into that light colored car with the dark top and then it backs up. now, what you can see on some other pictures, different angles, is the cross street where those two cars are at an intersection of a cross street

is a large march, a rally that's walking down that street. like where that officer just crossed on the video, where it's a large rally with flags, looks like counterprotesters were marching, and where the charger comes down, it would almost cross, "t" right into that, but it was blocked but those two vehicles that were stop bped by the marchers because they were filling the street. and you could also see them waving flags, so it clearly was an area of a lot of counterdemonstrators to the neo-nazis and the klan. even marching down that cross street, maya and the producers can probably fill us in on what was going on in that area but that's also indicative of a person trying to attack the counterprotesters. of course, leaving the scene, the hit and run, violently backing up, maybe running over other pedestrians is not anything indicative of an innocent traffic accident. so, the circumstances we've

seen, the reports we've heard from producers and reporters on the ground, the video and other images we were able to look at, it looks like it's intentional right now. the police have not confirmed that, absolutely, so we'll have to wait and see. and you can have hit-and-runs, you know, but this sure looks like the car knew there was a big group of ralliers there and hit pedestrians before they struck the vehicles and tried to make an escape. >> all right, jim cavanaugh, nbc news law enforcement expert. again, we are monitoring the situation in charlottesville, virginia, where a car has what appears to be intentionally plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters there to stand up against white nationalists and members of the alt-right who were there, themselves in protest of the removal of the statue of the confederate general, robert e. lee. we expect the president of the united states to address this issue very shortly from his golf club in new jersey. stay with us at msnbc. we will be right back. shatters the competition

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i'm jacob soboroff, you're watching breaking news on msnbc. we are awaiting a statement from the president of the united states about the ongoing situation in charlottesville, virginia, where earlier today, protesters protesting the removal of the confederate general robert e. lee statue in charlottesville, virginia, from the alt-right and white nationalists groups clashed with counterprotesters from organizations as diverse as the clergy to black lives matter to anti-fascist protesters, violence erupted on the streets of charlottesville, virginia. the governor of virginia has declared a state of emergency in virginia. local police and state police have declared an unlawful assembly for that gathering and subsequently the pictures that you are looking at right now is of an automobile collision. we do not have confirmation,

although it appears to be intentional, of a vehicle that crashed into a group of counterprotesters, there to stand up against what they say is the racism of the movement, of the alt-right and white nationalists there today. this car, a silver dodge, plowed into the crowd. from the video, appears to have backed out and left the scene. nbc's maya rodriguez is on the scene right there as we await remarks in the president. maya, what is the latest on the ground? charlottesville? >> reporter: well, i can tell you that we have seen a number of the counterprotesters moved out of here at this point. we did have police come down the street about an hour ago, just making sure that everybody would move along, and as you can see right now, there's actually a police officer inside one of the vehicles that was involved in this collision. there were about three cars involved in this collision that involved running people down, whether intentional or accidental, we're not sure at this point, but it's obviously

an active crime scene here. we have choppers overhead kind of keeping an eye on everything, but right now, the police have sort of taken off a little bit to the side here, trying to get some shade. things have quieted down quite a bit since we were out here, and again, that investigation is ongoing. there was a crowd out here earlier, you know, just trying to figure out exactly how this could have happened, what led to this exactly, and how did things just sort of devolve throughout the day to get to this point. jacob? >> i want to bring in brian levin, who's been with us over the course of the afternoon here, director at the center of the study of hate and extremism at california state university. brian, as you watched this and hear jim cavanaugh, our law enforcement expert, talk about how all i wandications are heree that this is not accidental. we have not often used the word, potential terrorist intent by an assailant who would drive a car into a group of

counterprotesters protesting hate and extremism. when you look at this, is that something that crosses your mind? >> yes, and jim's an old friend going back over 20 years. one of the things that we've seen is when there's a tactic used by one side, it becomes dispersed across the extremist community, and we saw that in england recently when a man drove into a crowd of muslim worshippers leaving their mosque. so, while we've seen this been encouraged, for instance, initially by violent jihadist, we've now seen this kind of stuff come up on the far right, and indeed, there have been -- one of my colleagues sent me an e-mail saying that there's even been legislation saying that if people are run over by having streets blocked, that they should be indemnified in some jurisdictions, which of course is ridiculous. but the bottom line here, i've been to many of these kind of protests over many years, is

when they're dispersed, and you have these amorphous pockets of crowds going in different directions, it's very difficult to police. usually, you have it set up in a grid pattern and people are separated by whole streets. here, because the streets are small and because the protesters and counterprotesters were scattered, you had numerous potential flash points that could take place where there were vulnerabilities. one last thing. a lot of these folks look for raising a flag and planting a flag for turf, and if this was intentional, i'm with jim on this, i think it looks like it, that could be someone trying to reclaim some kind of turf from the folks that took away their right to protest. i see this all the time. >> all right, brian, stand by. as you can see in the bottom right corner of your screen, we are still awaiting a news conference and statement to the nation from the president of the united states, from new jersey. we expected the president to speak around 3:00 p.m. on the east coast, which of course is 3:00 p.m. in charlottesville, virginia, where this situation continues to unfold.

we do not know why we have not heard from the president as of yet. but we are going to continue to monitor this right here on msnbc. we will take a brief break and be back right after this. so that's the idea. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes!

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you're watching msnbc and these are live pictures from bedminster, new jersey, where the president of the united states, donald j. trump, is expected to address the nation shortly about the ongoing situation in charlottesville, virginia, where violent protests have erupted around the removal of a statue of the confederate general, robert e. lee. both white nationalists and members of the ku klux klan have clashed with counterprotesters made up of clergy, members of the black lives matter, anti-fascist groups, and this is, of course, the home of the university of virginia, very progressive place. the scene playing out today, though, is scenes of violence, scenes of racism, and scenes of

bigotry. it devolved into the afternoon into a car -- you're looking at these pictures right now -- ramming into innocent bystanders formed of counterprotesters to that earlier clash earlier in the day. we have seen pictures of injuries. we have seen pictures of cars with blood splattered on the windshield, and we know that a car from the images that we are getting in, drove into this area filled with pedestrians, catapulted, i think, is the only way to describe it, at least one of those people into the air. you're watching some of them in the aftermath get away from the scene and that car reversed out and drove away. we're going to go now to nbc's maya rodriguez who is on the ground there in charlottesville with an eye-witness to those events. >> reporter: yeah, jacob, we're joined by john sigler who was out here when the accident happened.

the reason you're all covered in sort of this white substance is because you were hit by tear gas. >> i was hit by pepper spray earlier in the day. this was a separate incident at the park. whole other thing. sorry about my experience. >> reporter: tell us about what you saw out here. >> at the accident? i had just encountered the group of counterprotesters, the anti-racist folks who were out here. they were just going to march peacefully down the streets. they were deciding on which way to march. i was live up on my facebook and periscope at the time. a couple minutes into that, they turn the corner, got about 20, 30 feet down the road and this silver dodge charger comes plowing at about 30, 40 miles per hour directly into pedestrians. i saw at least two people fly over the hood of his car, and then he hit another car that was parked in front of him, which hit, then, another van who had no driver in it, which was also parked on the side of the road. so those two other cars caused multiple injuries themselves

from the chain reaction. and then he immediately tried to reverse out of there really fast and that case, he hit another, at least, one or two people when he reversed so he stopped because he was -- it had caused his car to stop. people were trying to chase the car. he reversed out of there at full speed. from witnesses at the end of the road, there were people in white nationalists garb directing him way to go. >> reporter: did he get away? >> we heard from a lot of people that he had been apprehended. i don't have a hundred percent confirmation from the police on that, but i'm pretty confident that he was apprehended. we were looking for the license plate right after it happened, but we came to hear from other witnesses, there were no license plates on the car at all. >> reporter: what did you see as far as the victims were concerned after the incident and what went through your mind. >> when it first happened, the first few seconds, you're in shock and like, an accident just happened. and then instantly, you realize, no, a car just plowed into these people and reversed and plowed

into more, and tried to get -- make a break for it. and with all the footage that we're putting together, it was clearly intentional. but right away, it took ten seconds to realize it was real and what exactly was happening. and then you see -- i saw at least six or seven pairs of shoes on the ground, pools of blood. i saw one person unconscious with their leg almost half off and stuff coming out of it. it was very horrific scene. we knew at the time there was at least one person taken away in an ambulance, not breathing, and then sad to hear that at least one person has died now, which kind of solidifies what i was saying on my live stream, chin you guys have been airing, that this was a terrorist attack. if what happens in france when people get plowed -- pedestrians get plowed into by an automobile intentionally, it's called a terrorist attack. this needs to be called for what it was. somebody has died for the white nationalists cause on american soil. >> reporter: john, we want to thank you again for sharing your video with us and sharing what you saw here today. as you can imagine, a lot of

people were out here. there were several hundred people who saw this entire situation unfold. back to you. >> maya, thank you very much. we now see the president of united states of america, donald trump, stepping up to the podium in new jersey. the president. >> small press conference, but a very important one, and it was scheduled to talk about the great things that we're doing with the secretary on the veterans administration, and we will talk about that very much so in a little while, but i thought i should put out a comment as to what's going on in charlottesville. so, again, i want to thank everybody for being here, in particular i want to thank our incredible veterans, and thank you. let me shake your hand.

>> great people. they're great people. but we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and 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. it has no place in america. what is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. no citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society. and no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play or

be with their parents and have a good time. i just got off the phone with the governor of virginia, terry mcauliffe, and we agreed that the hate and the division must stop and must stop right now. we have to come together as americans with love for our nation and true -- really -- and i say this so strongly, true affection for each other. our country is doing very well in so many ways. we have record -- just absolute record employment. we have unemployment, the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. we have companies pouring into our country, foxconn and car companies and so many others, they're coming back to our

country. we're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country and great for the american worker. we have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when i watch charlottesville, to me, it's very, very sad. i want to salute the great work of the state and local police in virginia, incredible people. law enforcement. incredible people. and also the national guard. they've really been working smart and working hard. they've been doing a terrific job. federal authorities are also providing tremendous support to the governor. he thanked me for that. and we are here to provide whatever other assistance is needed. we are ready, willing, and able. above all else, we must remember this truth. no matter our color, creed, religion, or political party, we

are all americans first. we love our country. we love our god. we love our flag. we're proud of our country. we're proud of who we are. so, we want to get this situation straightened out in charlottesville, and we want to study it, and we want to see what we're doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen. my administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. we must love each other, respect each other, and cherish our history and our future together. so important. we have to respect each other. ideally, we have to love each

other. and now to the veterans administration, where i'm so proud of david and the job you've done. what you've done in such a short period of time, i think you folks would attest to it. if anybody disagrees, you can leave the room right now. but david really has. he's a star, what he's been able to do. so david, i'd like to thank you very much for your leadership and for the profound improvements to the va services that you've made in such a short period of time. today is another milestone in our work to transform the va, where we're doing record-setting business, including something called the accountability act, where david and his executives can now hold people accountable for doing a poor job and say, you're fired. you do a poor job for our veterans, you're fired. that's been in the making for 40 years. they were unable to get it

approved. one of our legislative successes, frankly, one of our many legislative successes. we got it approved. and i know david, it's making life a lot better, and people are working a lot harder because of oiit. in a few moments, i will sign the va choice and quality employment act of 2017. this bill will ensure that veterans continue to have the ability to see the doctor of their choice, so important, and don't have to wait or travel long distances for care and during the campaign, i kept talking about it. people, these great, incredible veterans, our finest, they're waiting in line for seven days, nine days, 14 days, for ailments that could be fixed quickly, and they end up dying of things that could be taken care of very, very routinely. and i said, that's never going to happen when i'm president. and i said, even at the time,

before having tremendous research given to me and after the research was given, it was still back to the same basic common sense, why can't they go out and see a doctor? if they have to wait seven days or 14 days online, why can't they see a doctor and we'll pay for the cost of the doctor and that's going to be a lot less expensive but more importantly, you're going to have immediate medical care for our veterans, and that's what we're doing, and they're very, very thankful. and it started already. quite a little while ago, considering we're a very young administration, and i think you see from the veterans, they're very, very proud of it and very happy. very importantly, this bill also authorizes new community-based outpatient clinics and improves the va's ability to hire quality job candidates. we're getting candidates that are of the highest quality into the va system now so that our veterans have more choices and

more access to the absolute best possible care. i want to thank congressman phil row, senator johnnyjohnny isaac two people that have been working so hard. senator dean heller for their dedicated efforts to get this bill through congress was very, very tough for reasons that i guess i understand, but it was not easy. and i will tell you that phil and johnny and dean worked very, very hard to get it through. and by the way, i can also say others and even some democrats. do you want to say their names? go ahead. say their names. >> senator tester and representative walls were key in helping us get this done, mr. president. >> good. see? i can do it.

but people fought, and they really fought us hard and now administration is fighting for you. we're working night and day to ensure our brave veterans are provided with world class treatment, which is what they're getting, world class treatment, and by the way, again, we're here for just a little more than six months. you're seeing its on a daily basis get better and better and better, and you're hearing it from the veterans. but they're getting this great medical treatment, care, procedures, and we're getting our facilities shaped up and made into world class facilities at the same time. so, our great veterans deserve only the best, and that's exactly what they're getting. i want to thank everybody for being here, especially the wonderful veterans behind me. they have helped us so much. they're spectacular people. and again, going back to

charlottesville, we have to heal the wounds of our country. these are wounds that have been going on for really a long time, and i thought, and everybody thought, and everybody wants it to heal, and it will heal and we're going to make every effort possible to make sure that that healing procedure goes as quickly as possible. i love the people of our country. i love all of the people of our country. we're going to make america great again, but we're going to make it great for all of the people of the united states of america. thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much. >> bedminster, new jersey, speaking secondly about a veterans administration bill, but coming up to the podium and talking about the ongoing violent protests in charlottesville, virginia, based around white nationalists being in the streets there. the president not taking any

questions, and walking off. what we did hear from the president -- actually, let's listen in. looks like he's taking some questions. >> they'd like know sign the bill here instead of outside, so i think we'll do that. okay? thank you. the question is, who's getting the pen? >> cba. >> who's getting the pen? you folks argue about it, okay? let me know. >> ladies first. >> i think we're going to give it to -- ladies first, right?

>> thank you, sir. thank you, mr. president. >> okay. thank you very much, everybody. >> mr. president -- >> a number of the white nationalists -- >> do you want the support of these white nationalists groups who say they support you, mr. president? >> mr. president, have you denounced them strongly enough? >> a car plowed into a group of people. would you call that terrorism, sir? >> pretty striking to see. we just heard the question, mr. president, do you denounce the support of these white nationalists, do you want the support of these groups out there on the street today. the president shook his head, walked off and did not address those comments, questions from reporters gathered in new jersey. we heard the president say he is closely following the violent protests in charlottesville, virginia. he called them terrible. the statement that sticks out to many people is the president of the united states said hatred and bigotry is on many sides in the united states of america, and this, of course, is the president speaking about an event that attracted members of the ku klux klan, white nationalists, white supremacists and members of the so-called alt-right. nbc's kelly o'donnell is with

the president in new jersey, monitoring this at the same time. kelly, as you anticipated, the president returned to a message of the restoration of law and order in his remarks. >> this is very much the kind of message that i think was predictable from donald trump, and it did not satisfy many people who were looking for something that had more overt compassion. his advisers will point to his references to love of country, but the fact that he does not condemn white nationalists or supremacists is something that will leave a hole that is unfulfilled. there was also a certain awkwardness in this event where the president had a pre-planned set of issues he was going to talk about that were things that he viewed would be very favorable to his administration, and then this outside event required him to have to change tone, and you could see him almost struggling with that as he knew that there were things he had to say in terms of reaching out to the governor, talking about wanting calm and peace. he did use the word bigotry, but

he did not talk about racism. he appeared somewhat uncomfortable in the way he was delivering these remarks. he went sort of reflexively to some of the things that he thinks are accomplishment from his time in office and talking about the positive things that are happening in the country. that, jacob, is sort of what i was referring to earlier of a challenge for this president, tonally, to be a person who can be a compassionate leader in a time of -- when there's a need for a moral note, and there were words that he said that could fulfill some of that. it also did not appear that he was particularly comfortable. he had tweeted this would be a press conference. the president often uses that word to refer to any time he's on camera and not specifically when questions will be asked and answered. but he had created an expectation that he would take questions and you saw that he did not. he heard the word, white nationalists, and kept walking out of the room. >> right.

>> reporter: he did not take a moment to stop and denounce it. so if we go back and get the tr transcript, we'll find some of the bases that he needed to touch in terms of the specific wording but there was also a sense that the president did not feel entirely comfortable and may have not answered all of the things that the country was looking for. >> yeah, kelly, you know, the president got up there and was talking about, as you indicated, employment numbers at a time when the nation's eyes are on a race-fueled violent situation in charlottesville, virginia. the president, again, just want to reiterate, said there is bigotry on many sides, which is a puzzling comment to many. on the other hand, we saw the vice president come out today, mike pence, and tweet about what the situation was in charlottesville. we saw the first lady of the united states step out and make a strong statement on social media about the situation. here's the vice president's tweet. he said, i stand with potus against hate and violence. u.s. is great when we join together and oppose those seeking to divide us. he actually hashtaged that

specifically about charlottesville. here's the first lady. our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate without hate in our hearts. no good comes from violence. #charlottesville. this would seem to be somewhat of a coordinated effort from th against what's going on. perhaps an independent general kelly is working this behind the scenes, but is this just another incidence of the president being donald j. trump? >> being an observer for a long time, i could hear where he went to the prepared remarks. there was something written for where he spoke in a softer tone, a more poetic tone. that was a few sentences and then around that, you heard the typical way the president addresses things. he does it in his own way. there was a coordinated effort to put out these comments from the vice president's office and first lady's office and president's twitt eter feed, so

there was coordination there. at the same time, some of the staff were responsible with dealing with the ins the dent and reaching out to officials and law enforcement in virginia. the communications part done separately. the if we were to play it back, you can almost see where the president ad libbed walking over to say hello and shaking the hand of the veterans at a time when he knew the national spotlight was on him. he did not appear comfortable talking about this. that's just the sense that i had having observed him many times and he has not had lots of experience dealing with sort of emotional, raw, life and death issue where there is violence in the country. one of the questions was is this a terrorist event. was a weapon, car turned into a weapon today as terrorism, some may judge it to be b that, when all the facts are known and that's not something that he addressed. so, this is a challenge for the president. and what i've meant by that is that it is not an area where

he's comfortable. he is reluctant to denounce white supremacist publicly. he does it in his own way saying all people, he loves all people in the country, so this was a very predictable tone from president trump and language from president trump. >> you mentioned the president decline d to answer whether or not this was a terrorist act or intentional car crash into the counterprotesto counterprotestors. of course, very quick to say he believes certain instances over the past six months have been islamist terror attacks. again, he declined to do that here. kelly o'donnell, grateful to have you here, few have understood the president of the united states more closely than you have. we heard from john zeigler about an unconfirmed death before the president spoke. that was according to the mayor

of charlottesville. we are going to continue to monitor that. joining me now is an arizona congressman. grateful to have you with us. the president had said that he wanted to look into things we are doing wrong as a country. as part of these iraqs. what did you make of what the president had to say and what are we doing wrong as a country? >> the first thing is that the president is not condemn thg terrorism that's occurring. in charlottesville. it's sickening he's not showing any leadership. it also continues to be a trend. we've seen him condemn any type of violence when it occurs with people of kocolor or of the musm religion but when races are involved, he tries to do the both sides and tries to somehow wash his hand of the whole issue. the fact is, the president has surrounded himself in his office with a bunch of alt right heroes such as dr. gorka, who is

reputed to be a nationalist, nazi in some parts of europe. the president also fed into this birther conspiracy, so if hemts to see what we should do, he should start with the rhetoric he's been pushing for the last eight years. and also look internally and see who's working for him right now. many aren't actually part of the problem. >> if i recall, he recently called the president a racist in pushing for the muslim ban. >> it's not just a muslim ban. he fed into this idea that our first black president was somehow involved through some weird kenyan crypto communistin racism of millions of americans and creating a hysteria over something that didn't exist and

says that a mexican american judge could not be impartial because he was mexican american. this is a history of this president. he is the president of saying and acting in a matter that is racist, so i do stand by my statements. i'm sure he doesn't consider himself a racracist, but everytg we've seen every time he has an opportunity to prove otherwise for example like today, he has not. very simple. you can condemn these nazis, say you don't want them in your party, but he does not because he knows it's part of his voting base and it's shameful that the president of the united states does not have the temerity to do that. he's a very apt and likely to do it if somebody runs into in london provided they're muslim, but not when it's a white nationalist and that's just disgusting. >> if i could break in here with a little news. nbc news has now confirmed that one person has died from their injuries in charlottesville, virginia today.

there are 19 reported injuries. we are not confirming yet if that is solely from the incident where that car slammed into a group of counterprotester, but again, one person has died. 19 people are injured in charlottesville, virginia at the scene of a protest between white nationalists, members of the kkk and counterprotester, from groups like black lives matter, members of the clergy and other groups on the street there in charlotte. >> just americans in general. >> and i am looking now at a tweet as a matter of fact from david duke, the former grand wizard of the kkk who was speaking out president directly saying i would recommend you take a good look in the mirror and remember it was white americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists. it is clear that this has unleashed a great deal of hate on the streets, not just charlottesville, but across america. the president of the united states declining to answer a question put to him if he

disavows the white nationalists that were in the streets today, many looking to this very tweet fr duke, many looking in the aftermath of what has turned swoo a deadly incident on the streets of virginia. we're going to continue our live breaking rolling coverage here on msnbc of the incident in charlottesville and the president's response. stay with with us. your big idea... will people know it means they'll get the lowest price guaranteed on our rooms by booking direct on choicehotels.com? hey! badda book. badda boom! mr. badda book. badda boom! book now at choicehotels.com

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who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. at humana, we take a personal approach to your health, to provide care that's just as unique as you are. no matter what your name is. good afternoon. we want to continue the break ing news out of virginia. multiple people are injured. this man hunt now on for the driver behind this. and there is reportedly one person deceased according to the mayor of charlottesville. we're working to independently verify that here at nbc news, but it happened after a car rammed through a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in charlottesville. we have the video of this. we want to warn you, it is graphic. but