| | | | | A demonstrator holds a sign in front of the White House on Sunday during a vigil in response to the violence in Charlottesville. Credit: Zach Gibson/AFP/Getty Images | | | What the White House is Talking About: Trump returns to Washington amid fallout from Charlottesville response
How White Nationalists Responded: A look at what groups like Vanguard America and Daily Stormer posted this weekend
Street Art Sighting: As seen in Charlottesville: "Hate has no place here" | | | What the White House is Talking About:
President Trump today heads back to the White House for a handful of hours to first meet with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray about the events over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. Later he'll sign a memorandum about China's trade policies.
What the White House Press Corps is Talking About:
Whether we'll hear an updated, ahem, improved statement from Trump about the horrific nature of the Charlottesville violence. Also, Bannon watch. There's fresh buzz that Trump's chief strategist will get fired this week.
But First, Tweets:
Perhaps Trump's most telling tweet of the morning came on the heels of Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier's announcement that he's quitting the President's manufacturing council because he feels "a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism." Minutes later, Trump basically tweeted he didn't care, or, that he cared a lot -- depends on how much Psych 101 you've studied: | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
Remember a Few Days Ago When We Thought Maybe We Were Going War?:
I know it feels like a long time ago, but it's really only been about 72 hours since we were all freaking about a possible nuclear showdown with North Korea. But with Charlottesville and the fractured state of our domestic affairs, and Trump's response to them, Newsweek's new cover for the week of August 25 almost feels dated already and it's not even out yet. Here's a sneak peek: | | Credit: @mgoesele/Instagram
Our Daily Melania:
The first lady still doesn't have anything official on her agenda this week, save vacation time with her family, per a White House source, but that doesn't mean she isn't affecting the world ... of fashion. As I predicted months ago (no, really, I did, ask Hunter) fall trends are indeed reflecting the looks of Melania Trump. Whether consciously or subconsciously, FLOTUS' style is permeating September issues and popular fashion blogs. Here's one of WhoWhatWear's top five fall trends: | | Credit: @whowhatwear/Instagram
And here's a bunch of times Melania wore the look, before it became an "it" thing, over the past few months: | | Credit: L to R, Mandel Ngan; Mark Wilson;
Obama Has Message for Concertgoers:
In Chicago over the weekend, the crowd at a Chance the Rapper concert got a surprise when Barack Obama's face appeared on a huge video monitor. Obama had a message about safety and encouragement for the young people of Chicago. | | Credit: @ohdamnebony/Instagram
Dress Like the First Daughter:
I know it was a few days ago, but I was on vacation, so I'm a tad behind, but here's the dress Ivanka Trump wore to a roundtable discussion at Trump National Bedminster Golf Club last week. Shocker: it's another Ivanka Trump brand dress, this time the sleeveless scuba crepe zipper model, on sale here for $80.99. | | Credit: Jim Watson/Getty Images, zappos.com
Not Gonna Lie, Today is Hard:
Speaking of vacation, I'm just back from a week in Jamaica, where I stayed at a villa as the guest of some very dear and generous friends. I know it's hard to have sympathy for me on this first Monday back, but try? This was my view for most every day. And special thanks to Hunter for pulling the weight here at COVER/LINE while I was gone 🙌. | | What Washington is Talking About:
Wondering what President Trump will say today during his comments while back in Washington for the day.
What America is Talking About:
The Charlottesville attack.
Rest In Peace:
Three people died this weekend in Charlottesville. Heather Heyer, 32, a paralegal for a Charlottesville law firm who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters gathered to oppose a "Unite the Right" rally, and Virginia State Police Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Virginia State Police Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, 40, who were killed in a helicopter crash after monitoring the white nationalist rally.
There were also 19 others injured in the attack, nine of whom have been released from the hospital, and at least 15 other injuries connected to the protests. | | What We Know About the Charlottesville Suspect:
James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, is the suspect in Heather Heyer's death.
He was released from active duty from the army four months after reporting for "failure to meet training standards," the Army confirmed to CNN. He lived with his mother, Samantha Bloom, until five or six months ago. She told the Toledo Blade she didn't know he was going to a white nationalist rally but thought he was going to an event that had something to do with President Trump.
A high school teacher who knew Fields said he had "outlandish, very radical beliefs." "It was quite clear he had some really extreme views and maybe a little bit of anger behind them," the teacher, Derek Weimer said. "Feeling, what's the word I'm looking for, oppressed or persecuted. He really bought into this white supremacist thing. He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler."
A photographer in Charlottesville for the rally said he saw Fields there with a group holding symbols of the white nationalist group Vanguard America.
What Vanguard America Believes:
From their "manifesto" published on their website: "Democracy has failed in this once great nation, now the time for a new Caesar to revive the American spirit has dawned." | | Credit: Vanguard America
The "manifesto" goes on to say they believe America should be a "nation exclusively for the White American peoples," and their requirements for membership include "at least 80% White/European heritage." Those with drug, alcohol, or pornography addictions, felons or criminals, adulterers, those who are gay, lesbian, transgender, "or any other form of sexual degeneracy," or those with hand or neck tattoos "(exceptions possible)" are barred from joining.
On their site, they have downloadable propaganda posters, including one that calls fascism "the next step for America" and another that reads "Beware the international Jew." | | Credit: Vanguard America
How the Alt-Right Responded:
You may have seen this from over the weekend from the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer. This came from a blog post about Charlottesville in which the author praises Trump's response:
"Trump comments were good. He didn't attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us. He said that we need to study why people are so angry, and implied that there was hate… on both sides! So he implied the antifa are haters. There was virtually no counter-signaling of us at all. He said he loves us all. Also refused to answer a question about White Nationalists supporting him. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him."
On a Daily Stormer message board for Northern Virginia, one user wrote NoVa "will become an alt-right stronghold" and another wrote "had absolutely NO IDEA we had so many of our guys nearby." | | Credit: Daily Stormer
And on Gab, a social network that was created last year as an alternative to mainstream sites like Facebook and Twitter that describes itself as an "ad-free social network for creators who believe in free speech, individual liberty, and the free flow of information online," one of top posts in the "popular" tab said "Charlottesville will go down in history as the beginning of the white civil rights movement." | | Credit: Gab
What White Nationalists Think They Have in Common with the LGBT Movement:
Many white nationalists whose posts I read online over the weekend saw Charlottesville as a victory and a sort of coming-out party.
This quote from alt right founder Richard Spencer in a video published in December by the Atlantic stood out to me. He compared to the rapid change in public opinion on LGBT issues to what he hopes could happen to white nationalism. He said: "If you greeted someone in 1985 and you said 'all gays should marry,' you actually would probably get a lot of laughs. Maybe ten years from there you would get fewer laughs and maybe even a couple supporters. By 2015, gay marriage is popular. What is possible has shifted. That's what the alt right is doing. It's thinking those political ideas that aren't possible yet and imagining a reality in which they are."
LGBT rights in America made rapid progress in part because of the internet. People who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender who in the past would have felt isolated and alone found out there were other people like them. They found a community. They found courage to come out. Millions of Americans who might have once thought gay people were the scary, dangerous "them" found out gay people were their friends, family, neighbors and coworkers.
The thing is, I've heard people supporting plenty of activists from political viewpoints suggest they could recreate the rapid change in public opinion the LGBT rights saw. That white nationalists also think they could as well doesn't necessarily surprise me, but it makes me wonder: just how many closet white nationalists or white nationalist sympathizers are out there?
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are currently 917 hate groups operating in the US. That's down from a peak of 1,018 in 2011, according to their data, but is an increase since 2014: | | Credit: Southern Poverty Law Center
White Nationalists are Losers:
Much has been said and about how insufficient Trump's response to Charlottesville has been. White nationalists believe he is on their side and he's been more outspoken about celebrities who make fun of him than he has been about white nationalists. Even as the controversy prompted by his response grew over the weekend, he stayed silent Sunday; it was only the fourth day in his presidency he didn't tweet (although he did RT four tweets, he did not tweet a unique message of his own all day), according to CNN's record.
Trump prides himself as a champion of winners and winning. And white nationalists are losers. They carry the flags of Nazi Germany and the Confederacy, losers. They protest the removal of memorials to losing Confederate generals. Their beliefs have been condemned by people across the country. They are losers.
Walking the National Mall last night standing in front of the World War II Memorial facing the Lincoln Memorial, I was reminded that as the memorials and statues to loser generals that white nationalists protest are being taken down across the country, memorials to the winners still stand. Don't forget that. | | Credit: @hunterschwarz/Instagram story
Street Art Sighting:
Written on Beta Bridge in Charlottesville: "Hate has no place here ... We choose love." | | Credit: @UVA/Twitter
Send me your pics of political street art to coverlinehunter@cnn.com, tweet me @hunterschwarz or tag @cnncoverline on Instagram. | | | | | | |
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