J Street condemns the white supremacist violence and rhetoric on display by hate groups and their supporters in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. J Street is especially horrified by the apparent car-ramming attack on counter-protestors that has so far resulted in one death and many others injured. We express our condolences to those and the families of those hurt in what the facts may ultimately show was an act of terrorism.

We are also disgusted by President Donald Trump’s obfuscating response to this hate-driven, far-right violence in which he sought to lay blame “on many sides.” The president’s equivocation minimizes the magnitude of tragedy and the seriousness of the spike in acts and expressions of anti-minority bigotry during his campaign and presidency. The president and the advisers who counseled him to offer such an egregiously insufficient and even harmful response should be ashamed.

J Street stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the communities under threat from this surge of hatred, and all Americans who seek to exercise their rights to resist it.