been pretty tame here. in light of the violence in charlottesville. officials here in richmond were taking every precaution that they could to make sure we didn t see a repiece. you can see here, they set up these heavy barriers all around the statue of robert e. lee. they also cordoned off all the streets around this monument as well, to try to keep some of these warri ring functions away from one another. the group that organized this rally called the new confederate states of america, they didn t have that many people. earlier on this morning, there were less than a dozen people here being shouted down by a group of maybe more than 100. now you can see things are starting to die down. sort of turned into more of a discussion amongst some people who support the confederate monument staying in richmond and some otherfredricka, but certai not what officials here in richmond were expecting to happen. it s probably for the better. so, scott, was there a lot of
leland: all right. certainly a different view from leadership in the city than we ve seen in some of the past riots around the country. griff, thank you, stay safe on the ground. our best to the mayor. elizabeth. elizabeth: we re keeping a close eye on a number of rallies today in and around the nation s capital. here in d.c. supporters of president trump have gathered for what they call the mother of all rallies kicking off soon right around the national mall. a live look now in richmond, virginia. three harmed members of the new confederate states of america gathered around the statue of robert e. lee this morning, but those demonstrators have since left the area. counter-protesters are still around that particular monument. they want to preserve richmond s confederate monuments. this is a live picture you re looking at right now. they say their rally is about heritage and not hate. and fans of the insane clown posse you may have heard of otherwise known as the juggalows are marching
just a couple of hundred feet away, people have also gathered in support of the president. we have some crews out on the national mall there if anything interesting happens. so far people are just sort of milling around. also a few hours south three members of the new confederate states of america and you heard that right, exactly three held a rally to preserve confederate monuments. they left the area about two hours ago but so far the counterprotesters have stuck around. noteworthy, the police banned all weapons during this protest except for guns because virginia is an open-carry state. no rocks, no bottle, no sticks, but you were allowed to carry your guns in richmond. so far as you can tell, not much news there to be made. elizabeth? elizabeth: turning now to the fallout in st. louis that you ve probably been following after a night of violent protests that followed a judge s acquittal of a white police officer in the shooting death of a black man in
lincoln let me say. we are in a very, very emotional moment. we are. and that s why i wanted to have him on, by the way. it was my idea. i wanted to have the sons of the confederate and i m not here to lecture because, by the way, i m not a civil war expert. i have colleagues who are. i had to learn about it, of course. but this is the most important thing. the reason why those statues matter is not that anybody wants to erase the fact of the confederate states of america. it s part of american history. it s that those statues were put up, many of them, in the era of jim crow when there were bitter enders. there were southerners who didn t want african-americans to enjoy all of the rights of citizenship, and these people put those statues up so that african-americans would be put in their place. that s what this is about. our country has evolved, and shannon is going to tell you a
statues that there there? i absolutely do. matter of fact the confederate battle flag in my estimation has been hijacked by that group of racist individuals and should be in a museum which indicates it s a military flag and not of the confederate states of america and i understand that feeling as it s always been approached by that group. one tofrp and that s a torch on the statue of liberty. thank you very much, sir. i appreciate it. thank you very much. when we come back the president has one account of what happened and an account by vice news shows a different account. that s next. but here s some of what he told her. what do you think this means for the next alt-right protest? it s going to be really tough to top but we re up to the challenge. why? i mean, someone died?