to the white supremacist extremism movement." amy: despite the fbi and department of homeland security findings, the trump administration recently cut funds to organizations dedicated to fighting right-wing violence. well, as the nation grapples with what happened in charlottesville, virginia, we turn now to the best-selling author ta-nehisi coates, the national correspondent for "the atlantic," where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. he's the author of "between the world and me," which won the 2015 national book award for nonfiction. and the author of a forthcoming book titled, "we were eight years in power: an american tragedy." ta-nehisi coates, it is great to spend this hour with you. i want to start by asking a response to what happened in charlottesville and then to president trump's actions in response. >> my response is that it is predictable. you had eight years before president trump, a situation where the opposition party basically ran in opposition to the president on a platform of thinly based rac

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. >>

even a black person can reenforce white supremacist ideology while people who are white can undermine it. it's not about white versus black, it's about right versus wrong. white supremacist ideology undercuts the value of american democracy for all of us. unless the president stands up to suggest this, this notion that black lives matter on one hand and white supremacist groups are equal, is paurt and parcel of what we are fighting in america, and we'll kwont to this problem. >> extremism on both sides is wrong. >> martin luther king, junior. extremists for good, extremists for evil. >> not evil on either side. >> this is an ugly situation, it demands conversation. i'm happy we're able to have some of it here this morning. thank you to you both. >>> there's a lot of news to get after. the president is up and tweeting, going after people he thinks he needs to be criticized. is it the neo nazis? no. why not? let's get after it. >> the car just plowed into an enormous crowd of people. >> people are concussed, bleeding everywhere. >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregio

not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. >> white nationalists -- >> those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, robert e. lee. so-- excuse me. and you take a look at some of the groups, and you see and you know it, if you were honest reporters-- which in many cases you're not-- but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e. lee. so this week it's robert e. lee. i notice that jacques i stonewan is coming down. i wonder is it george washington the next week, and thomas jefferson the week after? you really do have to ask yourself where does it stop. >> reporter: he condemned the driver who ran his car into counter-protesters. >> well, i think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family, and his country. and that is-- you can call it terrorism. you can call it murder. you can call it whatever you want. the driver of the car is a murderer, and what he did was a horrible, hosh, inexcuse exoouzable thing. >> reporter: have you spoken to the family of the victim of the c

revisionist history waters and when we attempt to water down what took place this weekend, these were white supremacistsationalists. >> i'm not -- >> what i'm hearing brunel when you say there's no room for white supremacy, black supremacy, whatever. that is equating the two, to are me, and that is not the same. people were lynched in this country by white supremacists. no one else killed anybody, used isis style tactic this is weekend except the white supremacists. we need to call a spade a spade. >> if i may respond? what i'm saying to you miss symone is there's a lot of deep hurt in this nation all across the nation, and we have got to move forward. we have got to get out of this not allow this miniscule part of our population to overtake all of what's going on. we've got a president in office who is working on immigration. >> sympathizers with white supremacists. >> -- who is sympathizing with the entire nation. when donald trump ran for office he stood up for people across the spectrum and people across the spectrum whether you like it or not, or whether the media wants to accept it or not voted fo

so do d many other white supremacist -- so did many other white supremacists at the rally.t of the reason the top military officials are breaking with a longstanding tradition of staying out of politics, like the ceos christine mentioned. overnight, the chairman of the joint chiefs, joseph dunford, told reporters there's absolutely no place for bigotry in the united states military. the chiefs who report to dunford have also weighed in without directly commenting on the president. more from barbara starr at the pentagon. >> reporter: christine, dave, the joint chiefs are some of the most senior military advisers in any administration. and they like to say that they do not get involved in politics -- especially in the trump administration. they're about making sure a military force is trained, equipped to face any threat. but all of them, all five, have now stepped into the national conversation following the events in charlottesville. in the last couple of days, all of the chiefs, the head of the national guard, the air force, the navy, the marines, and the army, all of the

the department of homeland security. >> you know, i think there are a lot of connections to white supremacistat nationalism in the alt in the white house at the moment. aside from gorka, we have steve bannon is clearly a manipulative propagandist. if stephen miller, has a long-standing history of being a racist, and we have sebastian gorka and his wife katharine gorka him who are very much anti-islam. anti-islam in but general. it does that surprised me we were the only organization that was focused on countering far right extremism that was cut from the program. in fact, we're the only organization in the western hemisphere that focuses on disengaging far right extremists. with views held like the gorkas have, it does not surprise me at all. it is disheartening because i think it is going to hurt our ability to be able to tackle probably the biggest problem we're facing right now in america, which is white domestic terrorism. amy: another participant in the white supremacist rally in charlottesville was a man named peter tefft, who was outed by yes, you'regroup , racist, which had been posti

it's the white supremacist. that's the problem. no, it isn't. >> surely it's not the position of the trump white house that white supremacists are not a problem. >> certainly not. i'm not certain the context of that quote. i can tell you where i spend a great deal of my time and a great deal, unfortunately, of the american taxpayer's resources is combatting a global -- >> of course. >> it's an international problem. it's something we focus a great deal on. we make difficult decisions every day on how to balance and rebalance those resources. we have nation state problems in north korea and we have asymmetric terrorist global jihadi problems that have spread across the entire globe. what we have done is try to apply the resources in a way that is risk-based and focused on the threat. i don't understand what -- and i don't have the context for what he was speaking to a moment ago. but i will double down and be very clear and direct with you for a fourth time that the violence we saw yesterday is unacceptable. there is no equivocation

at the campaign he ran, look at the intentional courting both on the one hand of all these white supremacists, white nationalists, anti-semitic groups and look on the other hand the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, put to bed all those different efforts just like we saw yesterday. this is not hard. you know, there's two words that need to be said over and over again, domestic terrorism and white supremacy. we are not seeing leadership from the white house. >> do you think that's fair criticism? >> i think it is basically fair criticism from a mayor who is -- deeply distraught and emotional, he put it right on the line. as he sees it. i know there are people around the president who don't believe that's what the president thinks, that's not who he is. but, you know, what's more important is, that these white supremacists, some of them were quoted today, there was a quote in the press today by a white supremacist saying, we were emboldened by donald trump's electi election, we have taken our signals from that. he has to denounce this, i think, to restore the order -- to

that's why the white supremacists were there.hey were protesting. >> you think him saying we have to cherish our history was a dog whistle. >> oh, absolutely, absolutely. i think the president sends out a number of messages and if you look at the entire speech that he made on saturday, it was very disturbing. >> michael, let me just you right he's tweeting -- by the way, the black ceo, it took him about 48 minutes. he hasn't talked about the other ceos. he's tweeting about other things. >> took him 45 hours to respond to express. >> he's tweeting now this at alt-right pro trump media figure who indulges in conspiracy theories. one is about seth rich, the other is pizza gate. we know what that is. that's what he is doing tonight, retweeting stuff like that. that's your president, everybody. there you go. >> that's a problem. i mean, he had an opportunity to say clearly unequivocally and he should say it often that he condemns white racial supremacists. he didn't do that. this is an opportunity for americans to come together and re

. >>> white supremacists, the nazis. violence breaks out and the commonwealth goes on high alert. >>> white sprem mupremacists an nazis, go home. >>> president trump fails to single out the supremacists -- >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence -- on many sides. on many sides. >> now, many republicans are criticizing his omission. what happens next in the gop? >>> and, war of words. president trump issuing a dire warning to north korea -- >> they will be met with fire and fury. >> as the reclusive dictator threatens an american territory. >> he does anything with respect to guam, he will truly regret it. >> is there any chance for a resolution? >> nobody loves a peaceful solution better than president trump. >> trump's homeland security advisor will be here in minutes. . >>> hello, i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is horrified and outraged. white supremacists, nazis, racists, the alt-right converged on charlottesville, virginia this we

president simply did not go far enough in condemning the actions of the neo-nazi groups, the white supremacist groups in charlottesville, virginia. this afternoon the white house is pushing back. we'll get the latest response and a lot more. we're following all the late, breaking developments. we'll be right back. now, get the whole family the hottest smartphone brands like samsung galaxy for zero down. plus, get 4 unlimited lines for 40 bucks a month, taxes and fees included. more reasons why t-mobile is america's best unlimited network. going somewhere? whoooo. here's some advice. tripadvisor now searches more... ...than 200 booking sites - to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30%. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor. this idive into the classicster. crab lover's dream or new dueling crab legs with dungeness and snow crab. only during crabfest. now this is seafood. and hurry in to enjoy our new crab melt part of our seafood lover's lunch for just $9.99. we danced in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen.man. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't findin

>> apparently white supremacist. >> you know what white supremacists is about, what robert e. lee evokes. that's what they use for the basis for coming to gather. what is your point of disagreement exactly? >> well, my point of disagreement is that that was an excuse to bring these groups together. the local blogger who got the permit to protest the removal of the robert e. lee statue then blew this up. that was an excuse. >> and now someone's dead. >> look at how they got the permit. can i finish, simone? can you just shut up for a moment? >> you don't get to tell me to shut up on national television. >> hold on. >> i'm sorry. under no circumstances do you get to speak to me in that matter. you should exhibit some decorum. >> both of you stop for a second. simone, ken? simone? ken and simone, hold on a second. you need a reset. ken, you don't want to use language like that when you're talking to simone. you can disagree but don't talk like this on this show. >> i keep getting interrupted. >> we don't tell people to shut up on this show. you can stand up for yourself and still

these were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism. so it has not gone unnoticed that the president has not condemned explicitly these white nationalists. i should note this is a president who has not been shy about repeatedly criticizing a long list of people, whether it's republicans or democrats, people like hillary clinton, like barack obama, his fellow republicans like mitch mcconnell, his own attorney general jeff sessions, senator john mccain of arizona. the list goes on. he has called the media the enemy of the people, not on that list is any condemnation of nazis or neo-nazis, white supremacists or white nationalists. i have asked several white house officials where the president stands on white nationalism and whether he has any plans to issue any sort of statement condemning white nationalism. i haven't heard back from them. the president ignored questions about whether he wants support from the white nationalists after that brief press appearance. >> athena jones for us near the president's resort in bedminster, new jersey.

white supremacist groups. while the president faces tough criticism over his response to the attack, his homeland security advisers tom bossert says the president's message called for respect and love among americans. bringing in our white house correspondent athena jeans fra bridgewater, new jersey, where the president is spending his working vacation. first of all, do we know what the president is doing, a beautiful sunday, up in new jersey? >> reporter: hi, wolf. not so far. no word on what the president is doing. in fact, a small pool of reporters assigned to follow him today isn't even supposed to gather for several more hours. we've asked several times whether he's golfing. no word. it is a beautiful day for golf but we have no word on that. we also haven't heard anything more from the president about this issue, charlottesville, and what happened there, or any other issue at all today. but we did hear from the president's daughter ivanka trump who is, of course, one of his seen dwrer anior advisers w tw

this is time to lay blame, lay blame on bigotry and lay blame on white supremacists, on white nationalism and on hatred. >> to orrin hatch who tweeted my brother didn't give his life fighting hitler for nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. top administration officials were scrambling to come up with answers. attorney general jeff sessions was asked why he was slamming neo-nazis in a statement sunday and the president wasn't. >> the president did that yesterday. >> he is the president of the united states. >> you're asking me, i was giving you an answer. >> a member of the president's manufacturing council, the merck pharmaceutical president resigned saying i feel responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism. the president fired back saying frazier will have more time to lower rip-off drug prices. on a trip to clolombia, vice president pence condemned them by name. >> we have no tolerance for violence from white supremacist, neo-nazis, and the kkk. >> he was asked about the president's handling of it. >> many of us focus on what the president said and criticism o

white supremacists have been murdering people for taking a stand against them for hundreds of years. we don't know the number of slaves that they murdered. we don't know the number of free white people who were too sympathetic to slaves who they murdered. white supremacists have been trying to win through terrorism and murder throughout the history of the united states. two years ago the equal justice initiative in alabama released a study that counted 3,959 victims of, quote, racial terror lynchings. that was their term, racial terror lynchings. this was just in 12 southern states and only from 1877 to 1950. there were more in other states during those years that were not counted in that study. and then there were the murders during the civil rights movement of the 1950s, and the 1960s, including the assassination of dr. martin luther king jr. in 1968. heather heyer takes her place in history now beside the names goodman, schwerner, and chaney, the three civil rights workers murdered in 1964. andrew goodman and michael schwerner were new yorkers who responded to the call to go south

hold dear as americans. >> mason: the president took a lot of heat for failing to call out white supremacistsmmediately after the attack. now the job of his chief political strategist appears to be in jeopardy. major garrett is at the white house with more on that. major? >> reporter: steve bannon's job as chief strategist has never been in more jeopardy. he breakthrough a nationalist message to the white house but also clashed frequently with top officials path and present, and one well-placed source says banon's job could be gone by the end of this week. new chief of staff john kelly simply has no tolerance for west wing rivalries, and for this and other reasons bannon has fallen out of favor. as with all palace intrigue at is official until the president decides, but he will make that decision in an atmosphere where the president is being criticized for not criticizing white supremacist groups strongly enough, white supremacist groups that at times found traction at breitbart news, a news site steve bannon used to run. >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms... >> reporter: the leade

what sticks out for me is we are in a country and in a time where i witness masses of white supremacistsking down the main streets of charlottesville, virginia, emboldened enough to take the sheets off. these white people were wearing button-downs and polos and baseball caps. and i began to weep knowing it was quite possible that some of the people who were marching with these torches shouting "blood and soil" shouting "jew will not replace us" a ludicrous notion of white fear that has been strengthened and emboldened by the administration that is filled with hateful rhetoric -- amy: we just have -- >> we now have a president who will not even to announce white supremacy out right. amy: we just have 30 seconds, reverend cornel west. >> it is good donald trump has a neofascist sensibility. his sillier to condemn white supremacy and domestic terrorism means he is complicit is an affecting consequence. it is important to keep in mind even under barack obama, big money, massive militarism, the racism coming at him was vicious but the inequality, the inability to speak to the issues forlass m

a lot of folks are saying he is equating the neonazis and white supremacists and white nationalists whodemonstrating and last night with the folks counter demonstrating, protesting the racism and racial epithets they were espousing. i asked a white house official what the president meant by many sides. i asked several white house officials. this is what one of them said. they said the president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. there was violence between protesters and counter protesters today. that was the white house doubling down on this idea that both sidesed are to blame. another thing that's notable here is that the president talked about bringing the country together. about the need to unite to straighten out the situation in charlottesville to study it, to figure out what's going wrong in this country that allows this sort of thing to happen. a lot of critics on both sides of the aisle are saying the president needs to call out the organizers of these demonstrations by name. specifically we're talking about the white nationalists people

the victims were protesting the weekend rally by white supremacists. in condemning the violence, president trump did not single out the white hate groups, instead he blamed, quote, many sides, many sides, he said. that comment triggered bipartisan criticism for being vague and equivocating. the president is said to speak again on the issue. he is being briefed this hour on the case by the attorney general. jeff sessions, this morning, wouldn't predict what the president would say, but came to the president's defense for his initial response. >> i thought it was a pretty -- it was a good statement delivered a few hours after the event. the next day, yesterday, they explicitly called out the nazi's and kkk. it came from the white house. it did. it was authorized. >> here is the president, as you know, is not afraid to take to twitter to chastise a number of folks, yourself including, call out terrorism overseas. here is a president that didn't do that. why? >> the president did do that yesterday. his spokesman said -- >> that wasn't the president. it's no

>> i disavow. >> will you say you don't want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election? >> just so you understand, i don't know anything about david duke. i don't know what you're talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. >> for timing context, we flipped those two bites. the disavow came after. it just wasn't that it was about what he was saying. he had complete evidence of who david duke was. he also denied him earlier. he once was going to run for president with part of this party, called the reform party. duke was connected to it. he said at that time i don't want anything to do with this guy. >> just to finish the point, chris. it was the sunday before the largest number of southern states voted in the republican primary. that was very calculated. eventually he kind of provides the denuns asian that the bipartisan critics demand. but after he has sent his signal. again, he has done very well from the beginning with the elements of american society most uneasy about racial tensions. the vote driven by demographic anxiety, cultural anxiety, the two ar

he's given safe harbor to and white supremacists. >> donald trump short of woodrow wilson and andrew ckson is himself with disgraceful racial views come he's not pandering to people, these are his views. >> i think people realize the strain of white nationalism in the white house is in fact something that is more closely associated with the president himself. >> barack obama was a black president, maybe he didn't think barack obama was fit to be in office but he traded on racial animus and racial b.s. and he's been doing it for decades. anyone who was in that white house and its supporting him is complicit in their racism as well. >> it was disturbing, i think we saw the president's true colors today and i'm not sure they were red, white, and blue. >> we can say his words have emboldened white supremacists. >> it's a tough night for normal people, you have a lot of people at home going through kleenex right now. >> i'm just hurt. i think a lot of people are hurt tonight. >> sean: that's the guy that said a white lass? last week it was the media, they wanted to convince you that presid

for innuendo or room to read between the lines, this is the time to lay blame on bigotry, on white supremacists, on white nationalism and on hatred. >> reporter: criticism took hold on partners on wall street, too. monday, one of america's most prominent african-american ceos kenneth frazier of merck quit his manufacturing council, saying america's leaders must honor our fundamental values rejecting hatred, and supremacy. even before he condemned white supremacists, he said now that he resigned from the president's manufacturing council, he will have more time to lower ripoff drug prices. his gladelayed condemnation see too late. >> he had his opportunity and whift. that speaks for itself. >> reporter: as the president faces public political backlash, steve bannon is facing backlash of his own, senior adviser signals the knives are out for his chief strategist. over the weekend, hr mcmaster, national security adviser, was sktd repeatedly whether he could work with bannon and he kept dodging the question. >> sara murray at the white house, thank you so much. while we wait for the press conferenc

when we come back, part two of our conversation with the former white supremacist as well as a a whitepremacist who marched this weekend in charlottesville. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. earlier this week, a remarkable letter was published in a local newspaper in fargo, north pearce tefft, about peter tefft, who was photographed attending the deadly white supremacist rally in charlottesville. pearce tefft wrote -- "none of his beliefs were learned at home. we do not, never have, and never will, accept his twisted worldview. peter once joked, 'the thing about us fascists is, it's not that we don't believe in freedom of speech. you can say whatever you want. we'll just throw you in an oven.' peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all." those are the words of pearce tefft. he is ththe father of peter teft who marched in charlottesville. on thursday, i spoke to another member of the family, jacob scott, peter tefft's nephew. we also

white supremacists. we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides. on my sides. >> our brian todd has been following the violent clashes. he has more now from charlottesville. several people were injured in the initial clashes between the two groups of demonstrators. then shortly after 1:30 p.m. eastern time in the street just behind me, fourth street here in charlottesville, as a group of demonstrators were walking down the street, a car plowed into several of them and then struck two other vehicles. one 32-year-old was killed in that incident. at least 19 people were hurt, and separately two state troopers died in a helicopter crash just outside charlottesville, virginia. here's what we can tell you about the suspect in the car strike that occurred again right behind me here at this scene. he is 20-year-old james alex field jr. from ohio. he has been arrested and booked in a local jail. he is charged with one count of second degree murd

and obviously against white supremacists as well.ideo is from vice media. >> i'm hear to spread ideas, talk, in the hopes that somebody more capable will come along and do that. somebody like donald trump who does not give his daughter to a jew. >> donald trump but -- >> a lot more racist than donald trump. i don't think you can feel the way about donald trump and watch kushner walk around with that beautiful girl. okay. >> back with the panel. how much of this, and i don't know the answer -- is about politics in terms of the president trying to keep as much of his base as possible, and a small part of his base, but an enthusiastic part according to his new york times, is this alt-right. >> anderson, look, i know that no one believes anything that i say, but it's fine. 8% of african americans voted for this president. and almost double digits were millennial african american men. i think it's not true to give the impression that white supremacists or nazis are only in the republican party. >> i didn't say that. i said a very small pa

it was a bunch of white supremacists holding torches and chanting out against the jewish religion and against white supremacy and the white house of the -- and the president of the united states, he does not want to antagonize his base, does not have the spine, does not have the leadership or courage to call this out by name. that is shameful. no no no. ben, let me tell you this. he is -- ben, i let you talk. he is more capable of calling out mitch mcconnell -- >> ben, hold on. >> ben, let me tell you something, he's more capable of calling out his own attorney general and mitch mcconnell but he doesn't have the spine or the guts to call out the white supremacists in america today and i'm not going to defend that. >> i didn't ask you to defend that. should the person driving the car into the crowd of people, should that person also be condemned? >> absolutely. and he -- >> okay. considering both sides. >> ben -- ben -- >> he's talk -- >> hold on, ana, let me make sure the facts are out there. hold on. >> not happened with the plowing of the car. >> hold on. hold on. regarding that car

this is a time to lay blame, on bigotry and to lay blame on white supremacists on white nationalism and hatred. >> reporter: to utah's owner hatch. my brother didn't give his life for hitler ideologies to go unchallenged here at home. attorney jeff sessions was pressed why an anonymous person was slamming the state media when president trump wasn't. >> he did that yesterday. i'm sure he'll be -- >> that wasn't the president of the united states. >> you asked me, i was giving you an answer. >> reporter: merc pharmaceutical resigned in protest saying i feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and being extremism. the president fired back on twitter saying frazier will have more time to lower rip-off drug prices. >>> on a trip to columbia this weekend it was vice-president pence who condemned the white supremacists by name. >> we have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo-nazis or the kkk. >> reporter: pence also bristled at questions on the president's handling of the matter. >> many in the media spept time focusing on what the president said ins

white supremacists had the park. we were seeing a lot of objects coming down from the park into the streets. where most of the counterdemonstrators were. and it is clear, for every one counterdemonstrator flag you could see, there were 10, 15, confederate or white supremacist flags. >> the rally schedule ford saturday. there was a lot of people a. riefd f -- arrived friday night carrying torches. what was the significance of that? >> police caught off-guard from the start. several hundred marching through university of virginia campus, chanting white supremacist slogans and carrying tiki torches. why they got to the rally several hours early and were pretty amped up. >> paula reid. thank you very much. >>> let's tornado to john dickerson, top washington correspondent, an sochor of "fa the nation." i was struck by the fact that the president was carrying his saturday speech in his pocket. which suggested that he had something he wanted to say today. a. >> yes, he was, in the middle of making, continuing an argument. h

why is it so difficult for donald trump to utter the words white supremacists, to utter the words whitecist terror. that is what we are seeing. i mean, this is a president who has no problem calling out his enemies by name. he has no problem citing islamic terrorism, but he cannot utter these words. these are neo-nazis. these are not regular protesters. we have to understand that these are klansmen without their hoods and they feel like they can come out and show their faces, because they know that the president of this country has their back. and the fact that he has not uttered a single word, that statement that he gave out yesterday, that generic statement, it could be applied to any violent uprising in any part of the world. why can he not say we condemn these neo-nazi fascist white supremacist acts? three americans lost their lives yesterday. what is the president waiting for, and where is the outrage? >> not only has he not said explicitly the kkk, neo-nazis, fascists, he hasn't mentioned the simple word racism, even terrorism, and this is a man known for beating up his opponents

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

has now, it's an om omittance done with perhaps some thought. >> a message today that these white supremacists are emboldened right now. >> absolutely. i want to make a point this is an egregious display of leadership from the white house inasmuch as when you compare donald trump's rhetoric throughout the campaign and early days of being president with respect to charging barack obama for saying radical islamic terrorism and now soft shoeing around being able to say domestic terrorism or white nationalism in instances where it's clear and present in front of all of our faces being what it is. i think that when you compare his remarks to the tough talk he's given to vladimir putin, to kim jong-il in north korea and then soft shoeing around the issue, it's deplorable. and one of the things as being lost in this discussion is who the targets of these white nationalists are, who the targets of these white supremacists are. these are people of color, living on the fringes of america and when we heard donald trump talk about law and order and heard jeff sessions talk about law and order, this is wha

the am media he has called the enemy of the people but not on that list are white supremacists, white nationalists. the president did give an interview to the "new york times" where he said he didn't want to energize the movement. he hasn't repeated that statement in recent times. that is what many folks what to hear the president do. >> one statement came from an unnamed white house official. why was it attached to a chief of staff or press secretary or the president himself? >> that is another question that we don't yet have an answer to. the statement would have more force and someone in the communication shop or the president himself. so it is odd to see them take this staep of clearly trying to clean up a little bit of what happened yesterday in the wake of the harsh reaction the president has gotten. they went as far as putting out this new statement, this much more explicit statement but wouldn't attach a name to it. a lot of folks see that as odd and perhaps another missed opportunity. >> if the president does decide to show up let us know. we will have live coverage of that.

these were white supremacists, and this was domestic terrorism." rters pushing the president even further. >> mr. president, do you want the support of these white nationalist groups who say they support you, mr. president? did you denounce them strongly enough? >> reporter: it wasn't until today, two days later, that the president finally called the hate groups out by name. >> the average american should be distressed that it took so long for the president of the united states to condemn the ku klux klan and neo-nazis after demonstrations which resulted in death in charlottesville, virginia. >> reporter: tonight police in charlottesville vowing to make more arrests as they pore over videos of the violent clashes from the weekend. >> we're all still grieving in charlottesville, we're still praying, but we're also starting to get back on our feet and look toward the future. >> reporter: the country now struggling to do the same. for "nightline" i'm eva pilgrim in charlottesville, virginia. >>> when we come back, we'll take you inside the ideologies n

he leftields, the marines after four months earlier this year, and the white supremacists report thatn was talking about, a former marine who let a white for mrs. in a so-called unite the right rally that took place on saturday. i want to turn to another white supremacists christopher cantwell, speaking to vice on the day after the charlottesville protests. >> thehe fact that nobody on our side i'd, i would go ahead and call that points for us. peoplet that it t are killed anybody unjustly, i think, is a plus f for us. o our rivivalsee showed ththat we won't be e held. .. >> b but t the carr that strurua protester, unpnprovoked? >> that is s not true. you knowow that is not true. i've seen n the video. you haveve seen the video. the video appears to show some instructing a vehicle w when the animals attacked h him again, ad he sawaw no way to get away from them except to hit the gas. b because our rivals are a bunch h of stupidd animamals who don't payy attention, they could not just get out of the way of his car. and some people got hurt. and that is unfortunate. >> so you think it i

think you're going to burp but throw up instead. [ laughter ] gorka said just last week that white supremacistsot the problem. >> it's this constant, "oh, it's the white man. it's the white supremacists. that's the problem." no, it isn't. >> seth: oh, man, i'm going to gork. [ laughter ] and then of course there's trump's chief strategist and melting man-size candle steve bannon. [ audience boos ] who ran the alt-right website breitbart news, which is adored by white nationalists. even trump's former communication director anthony scaramucci denounced bannon's influence this weekend and called his toleration of white nationalists inexcusable. in fact, scaramucci, who gave a marathon press conference where he repeatedly professed his love for trump, criticized trump's original statement on saturday. >> if you were white house communications director yesterday, would you have advised he give that statement? >> well, i wouldn't have recommended that statement. i think he needed to be much harsher as it related to the white supremacists. i think he respects bluntness and he respects candor and i ce

you are leaving out the fact that these people who marched saturday, you call them white supremacistswho marched saturday, were in conflict because their life -- rights were being suppressed and the rights to air their grievances were being suppressed. if we as white people came to ae mall with a mack truck and change at rapid chain around the martin luther king statue and ripped it out of the ground, how much crime would you do them? host: have you ever marched in one of these rallies? if we wrapped h franey -- chain around martin luther king's grade and dragged his casket down -- host: that is robert from waldorf, maryland. catherine from massachusetts, line for democrats. caller: i am an 87-year-old black woman. i'm an heat -- i'm a hebrew israelite. blame president trump of the ku klux klan, i blame the christian churches for all this. if they told the truth, this stuff would never happen. the bible identifies the father and daniel and -- they are black. -- i said, you don't have we are all going to be in that fire together and it's too bad we can't learn to live together. he neve