Charlottesville Democratic Mayor Michael Signer placed blame on President Donald Trump for the violence in Charlottesville Saturday.
Signer criticized the president and said that he was not seeing leadership out of the White House, on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper.
Tapper asked Signer about blaming Trump for the events Saturday, quoting Signer for placing the blame “right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.” Pointing out the strong nature of the charge, Tapper asked Signer why the president bears responsibility.
“Well, look at the campaign he ran,” Signer responded. “I mean, look at the intentional courting, both on the one hand of all these white supremacists, white nationalists, a group like that, anti-Semitic groups, and then look on the other hand the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, you know, put to bed all those different efforts, just like we saw yesterday.”
Trump condemned the violence, but some criticized him for not going far enough. The White House issued a statement after Trump’s reaction.
“The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi, and all extremists groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together,” a White House spokesman said in a statement.
Signer said that there’s two words that need to be said repeatedly, “domestic terrorism” and “white supremacy.”
“Republicans and Democrats, if there is an issue that can unite this country, that this can be a turning point for this democracy, I think it just happened right now this weekend in Charlottesville,” Signer concluded.
The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly vehicle incident that left one dead and at least 19 injured, some critically.
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