Chaos In Charlottesville

Violence and a state of emergency in Virginia. We'll look at white nationalists, the White House, and the grim weekend in Charlottesville.

Charlottesville, Virginia was like a bad dream this weekend, but very, very real. Swastikas, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, Klansmen all out in the streets. Plenty with big guns, assault rifles. Chanting slogans from the time of Hitler. Ultimately killing, wounding. There were counter-protestors shouting “shame,” pushing back. But it was former KKK leader David Duke claiming victory. The president on Saturday declining to call out the white supremacists. This hour On Point: the hell in Charlottesville. -- Tom Ashbrook

Sandy Hausman, Charlottesville bureau chief for WVTF.

Vann Newkirk II, staff writer at The Atlantic. His recent piece is titled, "When Does a Fringe Movement Stop Being Fringe?" (@fivefifths)

Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Joshua Green, national correspondent with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Author of, "Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency."

Washington Post: One dead as car strikes crowds amid protests of white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville; two police die in helicopter crash — "Chaos and violence turned to tragedy Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members — planning to stage what they described as their largest rally in decades to “take America back” — clashed with counterprotesters in the streets and a car plowed into crowds, leaving one person dead and 19 others injured."

The Atlantic: When Does a Fringe Movement Stop Being Fringe? — "Even for me, as my father has studied the violence of white supremacy for most of my life, it’s hard to square a group of men with Home Depot tiki torches, wrinkled khakis, bad haircuts, and a love of memes who came down to Emancipation Park with the blood-curdling menace of Klansmen in my mind’s eye. It’s easier to joke about losers camping out in a park than to consider them capable of the kinds of paradigm-shifting horror that destroyed countless black families."

Southern Poverty Law Center: Trump again refuses to take responsibility for a resurgence of white nationalism — "After the deadly clash between hundreds of white supremacists and counter-protesters today in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Trump called for Americans to 'come together.' He used similar words in his victory speech in the wee hours of Nov. 9, even as white supremacists began to celebrate. The problem is that Trump’s words are hollow. His calls for the country to unite will continue to be meaningless as long he fails to take responsibility for his role in dividing it – something he conspicuously avoided again during his press conference today."