After deadly demonstrations by members of the alt-right and counter-protesters erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend leaving one person dead, first daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump responded to the violent clashes in a series of tweets.
“There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis,” she said. “We must all come together as Americans—and be one country UNITED. #Charlottesville.”
Her comments were especially notable since they directly condemned the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville carrying Confederate and Nazi flags. By contrast, the statement President Donald Trump issued after the incident sought to spread the blame more widely, decrying the violence by “many sides.”
The president’s response was panned by members of his own party for not denouncing the white supremacists more forcefully. Under that siege of criticism, the White House issued a clarifying statement on Sunday that said the president “condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred,” including “white supremacists, K.K.K. neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.”
Meanwhile on Sunday, Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was identified as the victim of the bloody clashes. She died when a man, whom police have identified as James Alex Fields, drove his car directly into a group of counter-protesters. Heyer’s mother Susan Bro spoke out about her daughter’s death, telling the Huffington Post that the tragedy shouldn’t be “a focus for more hatred,” but rather “a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion.”