As Trump Feels Heat, His Aide Calls Va. Violence 'Terrorism'

President takes flak for not specifically calling out white supremacists
By Josh Rosenblatt,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 13, 2017 10:15 AM CDT
Trump Aide Calls Virginia Violence ‘Terrorism’
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and President Donald Trump   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A day after a young woman was killed while protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, President Trump's national security adviser, HR McMaster, said the acts of violence committed by racists during the rally meet "the definition of terrorism," the AP reports. On Sunday, McMaster said, "[A]ny time that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it is terrorism." On Saturday evening, an Ohio man, James Alex Fields Jr., was charged with second-degree murder and three counts of malicious wounding after plowing his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others, the New York Times reports.

Trump, meanwhile, has come under fire from people across the political spectrum for refusing to specifically condemn the white supremacists, instead condemning "hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides," BuzzFeed reports. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner tweeted, "These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism," while Sen. Marco Rubio wrote that it is very important for the nation to hear Trump "describe events in #Charlottesville for that they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists." Ivanka Trump went further than the president Sunday, tweeting, "There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazis," Huffington Post reports. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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