this is "nightline." >> tonight, after the violent clash of white nationalists and counterprotesters in charlottesville, virginia the president under fire for distributing the blame. >> what about the alt-left? they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs. >> are his words emboldening hate groups? we're in boston tonight, where what organizers are calling a free speech rally is scheduled for this weekend. >> are you worried there will be violence at the event? >> will it be another american flash point? plus, love me tender. 40 years after his death, devoted fans gathering at graceland to celebrate elvis presley. we'rhe

including his former lover linda thompson. >> he was not in control. >> and his daughter and duet partner, lisa marie. >> i got more emotional during that record than i've ever gotten. >> sharing pictures and stories from their private relationships with the king. but first here tonight, the "nightline" 5. number 1 is coming

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good evening. at a time when this country is consumed by the story of hate and violence that played out in charlottesville, virginia the president for many americans has brought little comfort. his remarks at a fiery news conference yesterday have been criticized for emboldening hate groups, and now some are worried that a rally scheduled for this weekend in boston is only going to escalate things. tonight we hear from many different perspectives in our divided nation in our new series "american flash point." >> you will not replace us! >> you had some very bad people in that group. but you also had very fine people. on both sides. >> white lives matter! white lives matter! >> i've condemned neo-nazis. not all of those people were neo-nazis. believe me. not all of those people were white supremacists. >> reporter: it is the firestorm threatening to engulf the trump

came charging at the -- as you say, the alt-right? >> you nazi scum! >> do they have any semblance of guilt? >> reporter: while the president did condemn neo-nazis and white supremacists. >> they should be condemned totally. >> reporter: and while he is correct that some on the left did get violent, critics say there really is no comparing the counterprotesters with the bigots who openly support hitler and the kkk. >> jews will not replace us! >> to have the president seem to equate those people with the people who were protesting their viewpoints was something quite shocking. >> reporter: while this administration is used to criticism, today the president's words led to a massive public rebuke throughout this country from business ceos, faith and military leaders, and even on fox news. >> last night i couldn't sleep at all

our president, has literally betrayed the conscience of our country. >> reporter: the fallout spreading into boardrooms of some of the country's largest companies. 11 business leaders quit president trump's manufacturing advisory council, leading the white house to end the council altogether. >> these are the leaders of american business saying we cannot work with this white house, we cannot even be in an advisory role with this white house, because we believe that what the president has said is racist. >> reporter: a major blow to a president who prides himself on his business ties. when asked yesterday how he would heal the country's racial divisions, he said jobs. >> i think if we continue to create jobs at levels that i'm creating jobs, i think that's going to have a tremendous impact, positive impact on race relations. >> reporter: also today, some evangelicals who overwhelmingly backed trump in the november general election are now

support. johnny moore, an unofficial evangelical adviser to the president, said in a statement to abc news that the way some in the administration have handled the fallout has been "unhelpful, too emotional and insensitive." many conservative republicans have roundly condemned trump's moral ambiguity. >> reminiscent of what we saw in germany in the 1930s. the president has to totally condemn this. >> reporter: today the u.s. senate's only black republican, senator tim scott, saying in an interview, "i think you are missing four centuries of history in this nation." though other conservatives like the pastor c.l. bryant defend the president. >> do i think president trump is a racist? of course not. the president made it very clear how he felt about white supremists and how he felt about the alt-right and the white nationals. >> no father should have to do this. >> reporter: on the ground in charlottesville today, a display of raw grief at a memorial se

♪ amazing grace killed allegedly at the hands of a young reported nazi sympathizer who rammed her and many other counterprotesters with his car. >> as i listened to her friends and heard stories of my daughter and the way she was, she wanted equality. she wanted to put down hate. >> they tried to kill my child to shut her up. well, guess what? you just magnified her. [ applause ] >> reporter: heather's legacy already being felt across the country. the city of baltimore awoke today to find that confederate monuments had been removed under the cover of night. >> i think any

confederate statues are concerned about violence occurring in their city. >> reporter: in new york city signs commemorating the confederate general robert e. lee were taken down today. and in birmingham, alabama the mayor ordered a civil war monument entombed in plywood, though he was later sued by the state attorney general, accused of taking an illegal action. across the country there are more than 700 monuments to the confederacy sitting on public land. the majority of them in the south. >> hello, everybody. >> reporter: in his defiant press conference yesterday the president waded into the debate over the removal of these memorials. >> this week it's robert e. lee. i noticed that stonewall jackson's coming down. i wonder, is it george washington next week, and is it thomas jefferson the week after? you know, you really do have to ask yourself where does it stop? >> reporter: history mary rollin'son says that while many southerners rightfully want to celebrate their

there's really no way to separate the history of the confederacy from slavery. >> the confederacy very explicitly said if we don't do this we are going to have, you know, social equality of negros and whites and this is just absolutely something that we should lay down our lives to prevent. >> reporter: meanwhile, in cities across the country they are bracing for what many fear will be more hate-filled rallies. including in boston, where there is an event scheduled for this saturday. >> we also have a message to the hate groups, especially any that are planning to come to our city this weekend. boston does not welcome you here. boston does not want you here. boston rejects your message. >> reporter: today we met the surprising figure at the center of this storm, college senior john medler. >> well, what we have planned is that we're going to have what we call a free speech rally. >> reporter: he says h d

event. he says plans for saturday's event were under way long before this past weekend's events in virginia. >> so you're saying this is not a rally to talk about white nationalist, nazi, racist stuff, it's about talking about the first amendment. >> correct. >> so none of that stuff is going to be discussed? >> no. that is not our plan. >> reporter: but opponents who are organizing their own rallies say the purpose is far more insidious. >> what we saw in charlottesville was it was a horrible tragedy that could have been avoided. and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid here in boston. >> they might not have swastikas. they might not sieg heil. but they still want jews to leave the country. they want muslims to leave the country. they want a pure white race in the united states. >> reporter: and they look at the incidents in charlottesville not as free speech but hate speech. >> free speech can be hate speech. and i think that you do have a lot of people on the right who feel that this speech has been suppressed. but

between saying what you think and calling for a country that eliminates races and religions. >> reporter: john medlar does concede that a previous event just this past may organized by his group featured mostly far right speakers and that his original line-up for this saturday's event was very similar. >> the history of these people who were on your original speakers list, they're accused of saying anti-semitic, racist, misogynist, hateful things. why would you want to give them a platform under any circumstance not wiwithstanding your robust professed belief in the first amendment? >> well, i've been accused of apparently running some kind of a kkk rally. so i don't put much stock immediately in what people say about other people. i prefer to actually listen to them. >> we all have very strong messages that we hope we can all convey peacefully through our right to assemble. >> reporter: the counterprotesters making sure

loudly and clearly. >> there is some level of risk that there may be people who do not have the same sense of peace, the same sense of allowing both sides to express their views, even if they don't agree. we will outweigh those sentiments. that we will be the light that pushes back the darkness. >> reporter: they will be doing it, they say, in the spirit of heather heyer. ♪ i hear music in the air who was memorialized tonight by hundreds of people in a candlelight vigil and whose grieving mother moved so many americans with her words today. >> say to yourself, what can i do to make a difference? and that's how you're going to make my child's death worthwhile. i'd rather have my child, but by golly, if i've got to give her up, we're going to make it count. [ applause ] >> and for much more on this story tune in to "20/20" on friday for a full hour

the streets." next here on "nightline" we switch gears entirely. a vigil fit for a king. 40 years after the death of elvis presley his ex-lover revealing details of their life together. plaque psoriasis is not always easy. it's a long-distance run. and you have the determination to keep going. humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for nearly 10 years. humira works inside the body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. in clinical trials, most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just four months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal, infections and cancers, including lymphoma have happened as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores.

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y2gzpy yi0y if you listen to elvis's music these days, it's a little bit hard to believe he was once considered so rebellious. but some of today's edgiest musicians will tell you that they have been deeply influenced by the king, and now 40 years after his death we travel to memphis. here's abc's chris connelly. >> reporter: 40 years ago

home. on the other end of the line was a 9-year-old girl. it was lisa marie presley. >> she said, "my daddy's dead. my daddy's dead." she just blurted it out. >> reporter: thompson had spent 4 1/2 years as elvis presley's lover and confidant before they parted in 1976. one year later she struggled to believe what she was hearing. the king of rock and roll, dead at 42. >> presley was found unconscious in his mansion at about 2:30, was pronounced dead an hour later. >> i first quizzed her, are you sure that he didn't just go to the hospital? and she said no, no, he's dead. >> reporter: four decades have passed. how long? this year elvis's granddaughter, riley keogh, was nominated for a golden globe, an award elvis never won. and the love his millions of fans have for the king of rock and roll and the electrifying music he gave to the world never did die. ♪ well, that's all right mama >> reporter: it all startedn

memphis, where the truck driver who'd yet to sing with a band did the song "that's all right." ♪ that's all right now mama >> you had this kid coming in, this 19-year-old kid coming into the studio. he had never performed in public before. it's a music that's so spontaneous, so free. ♪ well, it's down at the end of lonely street at heartbreak hotel ♪ >> reporter: two years later he was crushing it live and on tv with "heartbreak hotel." >> he had a look that nobody had back then. the italian type of waistcoat. and you know, the stitching. very cool stuff. >> reporter: yet the generation has aged that knew elvis as a rebel, the hip-thrusting thunderbolt of charisma and sexuality who shocked a buttoned-down nation with his performance of "hound dog" on the milton berle show. ♪ hound dog with such contemporary country artists as land antebellum of "need you now" fame. ♪ and i need you now elvi

passed down to them by parents and grandparents. >> my first memory of hearing elvis presley was my paw-paw, my dad's dad. he would work real hard all through the week and on the weekends elvis was a go-to just music that was place at our house. >> jailhouse rock, blue suede shoes. playing on git where my dad were some of my first introductions to elvis. >> he passed away when i was six months old, but i've always been a fan of his music but kind of a student too. ♪ with suspicious minds >> playing drums for elvis made you feel like you were backing a stripper. you had to catch everything he did. i even studied karate later on to where i could anticipate his moves. >> he was so nervous about performing, he wasn't sure the fans would like him. >> he asked me one time, why are they here? i said to hear you. he said, "i can't understand why." ♪ here we go again >> reporter: those

"suspicious minds," on tour in las vegas, or here in nashville's historic studio b would never forget their years with elvis. >> most artists sing with the mike on a stand. elvis wouldn't do that. so he would grab that mike with his hand as if he were on the stage. >> reporter: the 1992 comedy "honeymoon in vegas" would feature this performance from a 4-year-old elvis impersonator. ♪ take my whole life too yes, that's a young bruno mars. whose thoughts back then appeared in the documentary "viva elvis." >> i like singing. and his dancing. >> reporter: ten years ago it was lisa marie, duetting with her late father on his social justice hit "in the ghetto." its proceeds going to charity. ♪ it's another hungry mouth to feed in the ghetto ♪ >> i had thought about many other songs, but that was just the one that just

really in-depth thing that i felt i could do something with. >> reporter: in 1972 linda thompson was a beauty pageant goddess 12 credits short of graduating from memphis state when she met 37-year-old elvis at the movies. >> you can't even remember the movie. >> no, woub able to if elvis presley was sitting next to you, maci in macking on you? i was very standoffish until he whispered in my ear, honey, you know i'm not married anymore, we're separated, we have been separated for seven months. i went, oh, well, let me lean in a little closer here, aw little more here. >> reporter: as she chronicled in her memoir "a little thing called love," linda was moved into elvis's graceland residence just weeks later. >> he confided a flaw that he had to you. >> he said, i'll probably only admit this once, but i have a self-destructive streak. it was evident in a lot of things, particularly in the way that he abused his body with prescription medication. >> reporter: one humorous out-of-control moment would

enter elvis lore forever. >> we were, the two of us, watching tv at graceland. robert goulet happened to be on tv singing -- ♪ if ever i would leave you and he says, honey, step out of the room. and he starts to reach for his gun. he says, "just can't stand to watch this any longer." so i closed the door behind me, and i heard boom, boom, boom. i walk back into the bedroom, and the television is just shot to hell. >> reporter: that tv, with its bullet hole, is among the memorabilia now on display at elvis presley's memphis, a new complex of elvis-themed museums, restaurants, and shopped across from graceland. a $137 million bet that elvis fans will continue to make the trip to reexperience his legend. his backup singers paying tribute, performing "sweet sweet spirit" 40 years after they sang it at his funeral. ♪ of the lord

>> he was one of the greatest singers and entertainers of all time. i'd never seen anything like it. you know, back then we didn't have the smoke and the fire and the explosions on stage. it was him and the music. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm chris connelly in los angeles. >> and we will be right back. when you're close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. do not use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase your risk of infections

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i want to thank you for watching abc news tonight. as always, we're online 24/7 at nbcnews.com and on our "nightline" facebook page. thanks again for watching and good night. >> as you may know, when i'm not hosting "millionaire," i host "the bachelor" and "the bachelorette," and i am thrilled that some of the great people i've met on those shows are here today playing for charity. that's right. it's "bachelor" fan favorites week on "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] [dramatic music]

welcome to "bachelor" fan favorites week on "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] today's bachelor fan favorite is a wine maker and the bachelor from season 16. let's see what he's up to now. from san francisco, california, please welcome ben flajnik. [cheers and applause] what's up, brother? >> what's up, man? >> good to see you. >> good to see you too. [cheers and applause] whoo! >> he's still got it. >> kinda. >> all that sexy, still got it. >> it's been a while. >> it has been a while. what are you--let's catch everyone up to date. >> yeah, let's catch up. >> so you were our bachelor. >> yep. >> you--it was a bit of a controversial season, i guess we could say. >> it was. i think that's why i disappeared for a while. >> right, you disappeared off the face of the earth. i don't blame you. you chose a girl named courtney and there was a big controversy. what was life like after the show? >> the first year was tough, i would say. i think that's why i kind of wanted to go back into