One year ago, the unthinkable happened as thousands of White Nationalists stormed the town of Charlottesville, VA, murdering 32-year-old Heather Heyer, causing the deaths of two state troopers, and injuring close to 40 people.
Video of driving through crowd of protesters in #Charlottesville
— Severin Jahn (@severin_jahn) August 12, 2017
After this horrific tragedy, Trump practically condoned the situation, calling the Nazis who were responsible “very fine people,” which angered every rational person in the world. Sadly, his words only fueled the fire for his racist base, as they continue rallies of this sort all over the country — even planning “Unite the Right 2” which will take place tomorrow, August 12, just one day after the anniversary of the Charlottesville riots.
As you might expect, Trump took to Twitter to acknowledge the anniversary of the horrific event one year ago, even condemning racism, but he failed to condemn white supremacy, which isn’t at all surprising.
The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2018
But while he was busy tweeting, GOP lawmaker Tom Garrett (R-VA) seemingly broke from Trump and admitted that he was informed by FBI Director Christopher Wray that Russian meddling contributed to “fomenting the flames of what happened in Charlottesville.”
On CNN’s Newsroom Garrett said:
‘I sat in a closed session briefing probably two months ago about Charlottesville with the director of the FBI, amongst others, and asked if Russian inter-meddling had to do with fomenting the flames of what happened in Charlottesville. I was told yes, it did.’
This is not the first time that Garrett has said that “foreign powers” contributed to the violence in Charlottesville, but this is the first time he used Russia by name, which can only make matters worse for Trump.
Garrett continued:
‘They (Russia) use events like this divisive racial fight … and this is the sort of thing they do. As a member of Homeland Security, that’s what scares me most, that Americans will be pitted against Americans over real differences, but that are minimal in the grand scheme of things. We are an American family of brothers and sisters regardless of religion and race, and we need to focus on that.’
The fact that Russia is so heavily involved in what seems like all aspects of our country at this point is terrifying, and the more Trump kisses up to Putin, the worse it seems to get.
Let’s hope that Sunday’s “Unite the Right 2” rally in DC won’t be a repeat of what happened in Charlottesville.
Featured Image Via Wikimedia
