This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia, which closed in 2021.

Ivanka Trump Condemns White Supremacists In Charlottesville

Ivanka Trump Condemns White Supremacists In Charlottesville
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, responded to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, by saying that, “there should be no place in society for racism.”

Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism before her 2009 marriage to Jared Kushner, who was raised in the Orthodox Jewish tradition. The pair serve as advisers to the president.

Thousands of members of the so-called “alt-right” movement― white supremacists and other radical activists― poured into Charlottesville this weekend for Saturday’s “Unite The Right” march. Many in the group wore shirts bearing Nazi insignia or waved flags with swastikas on them. Richard Spencer, a prominent white supremacist figurehead, also attended the events, which turned violent even before the march officially began.

A 32-year-old woman was killed on Saturday afternoon after a car rammed into a group of pedestrians protesting the bigotry. James Fields Jr, 20― who was in Virginia for the ‘Unite The Right’ march― was arrested and charged with murder.

Trump condemned the “violence” and “hate” in Charlottesville, but stopped short of naming any of the white supremacist groups responsible for the event. He also blamed “many sides” for the unrest.

Both Republican leaders and Democratic lawmakers― as well as civil rights groups― called on Trump to denounce white supremacy.

The president has a fraught relationship with white nationalists and two of his closest advisers, Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon, have allegedly been linked to white supremacy. During the campaign, Trump was lambasted after he shared an anti-Semitic image of his opponent Hillary Clinton that had originally been shared on a neo-Nazi website.

Trump also sparked ire last year after receiving an endorsement from former KKK leader David Duke, who he later disavowed. Duke said on Saturday that this weekend’s white supremacist events “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.”

“That’s what we believed in, that’s why we voted for Donald Trump,” Duke said. “Because he said he’s going to take our country back. That’s what we gotta do.”

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia. Certain site features have been disabled. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.