Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday, answering questions regarding the fatal attack that occurred at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday. A driver rammed a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman and injuring others. Sessions said the act constituted “domestic terrorism” under U.S. law, and said “racism, white supremacy is totally unacceptable.” President Donald Trump, however, was less specific in his initial reaction to the attack, speaking out against “hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides.” Sessions faced questions about Trump’s apparent decision not to single out white nationalists.
“What sides was he talking about here?” host David Muir asked.
Sessions said Trump was addressing “problems in America” that had been going on the United States “before Donald Trump, before Barack Obama.”
Again, Muir pushed Sessions on Trump’s “many sides” statement.
“He explicitly condemned the kind of ideology behind these movements of Nazism, white supremacy, the KKK,” Sessions responded. “That his is unequivocal position, he totally opposes those kinds of values. His statement yesterday again affirmed that, and I think you’ll hear that again today.”
Sessions repeatedly said that he expects President Trump to address the American people soon, possibly later on Monday. When asked if Trump will call out white nationalist groups this time, Sessions said, “I think he probably will.”
