set of awful events that played out in charlottesville. the white house, obviously heard that criticism and without the president s signature or his own name on this today, put out an anonymous statement, meaning no specific white house official put this to his or her name, but did try to explain that gap in what the president did not say. part of what this fallout has included is the reaction of those alt-right groups, white nationalist groups, and others in that category who on various websites that are supportive of their point of view saw the president s lack of calling them out specifically as a positive. that raised real concerns for south carolina republican senator lindsey graham, who is often a critic of the president, but also supportive of him at various issues at various times. in this instance lindsey graham said president trump really needs to do more to send a signal, especially to those groups. when it comes to president trump, i m with cory gardner, he missed an oppo
eventually, police were able to get kesler away from the scene there. maya rodriguez is live in charlottesville, virginia, where she s been for over the past 24 hours following this story. maya, what more do we know about what we just watched take place just moments ago? reporter: well, jason kesler started his remarks by saying police didn t do enough, in his opinion, to sort of stop the violence that broke out yesterday. so he was laying some of the blame at the feet of police and city leaders here, but as you saw, the crowd very quickly drowned him out. what is not clear at this point is who were these people? it s not clear if they were residents of charlottesville or counterprotesters still in town or a combination of both. but you may be able to hear they were yelling out things like
of this planned protest, and you can see them as our nbc news cameraman approaches the police line there. they appear to be dressed in tactical outfitting by probably for nothing more than to be prepared in the wake of the deadly attack yesterday in virginia. we know that terry mcauliffe is planned to speak in about an hour from now in a planned vigil. you see the marchers walking in seattle, washington. this is something that police will have to treat sensitively given how what we saw play out yesterday. i wantto turn now to more on yesterday from charlottesville. the events there yesterday stem, of course, from the city s decision to relocate the confederate statue of robert e. lee. cities have been debating how to handle confederate monuments for some time now and since dylan
for the president, indeed. nbc s kelly o donnell, thanks very much. joining me now, political reporter with the los angeles times and politics reporter for the daily beast. seema, i want to start with you. the white house statement we were just reading, looking to deflect some of that criticism by the president. why did this not come directly from the president? that s the big question. republican senators are calling on him to strongly condemn this, to use the words white supremacist and domestic terrorism, they want to see it come from the president s mouth, not an anonymously sourced statement. beyond that, this was a real test for the president and americans in times of tragedy, natural disasters, school shootings, we look to our leaders. this was a missed opportunity for the president. let me go to you. i want to play charlottesville mayor michael singer reacting to president trump s alliances. let s all watch that and talk about it on the other side.
mcauliffe said, i don t know who these people think they are, these white supremacists, these nazis, get out of the country, get out of my state, but get out of this country, we don t want you. you are not helping us. there you go. nbc s maya rodriguez in charlottesville. we ll check back later. thanks a lot. the suspect in the charlottesville attack, james alex fields jr. remains in police custody, expected to face four charges, including one count of second-degree murder. joining me now is kendall coffey, former prosecutor and former u.s. attorney kristen clarke, executive director for the lawyers committee of civil rights under law. kendall, i d like to begin with you. is this a case straight up of domestic terrorism? well, it s certainly got a lot of indicators of that. right now they are only charging him with second-degree murder and some lesser offenses. that s a place holder. both the state and the federal authorities are examining closely what evidence they can develop in