Shocking Video: Shows İnjured Crowd After Car Plows Through
Ted Cruz and other Republican senators call to designate Virginia car attack domestic terrorism as FBI opens civil rights investigation
Texas Senator Ted Cruz and a number of other prominent Republicans have called for a car attack in Virginia to be labeled domestic terrorism, and the FBI has announced it is investigating the incident as a federal civil rights case.
‘I urge the Department of Justice to immediately investigate and prosecute this grotesque act of domestic terrorism,’ Cruz said in a statement responding to the Saturday attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Car SMASHES into crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville/AkademiPortal from Akademi Portal on Vimeo.
Other Republican senators quickly jumped to label the incident terrorism as well.
Arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the attack was James Alex Fields Jr, 20, of Maumee, Ohio.
Field’s mother, Samantha Bloom, told the Toledo Blade that he had texted her on Friday to say he was going to an ‘alt-right’ rally in Virginia.
‘I told him to be careful,’ she told the newspaper. ‘(And) if they’re going to rally to make sure he’s doing it peacefully.’
Fields was pictured marching with white identity group Vanguard America at the Saturday rally in Charlottesville, which erupted into chaos as police and antifa clashed with protesters before the rally could begin.
President Donald Trump admonished the day’s tragic events, saying in a press conference: ‘We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, violence, on many sides… The hate and division must stop, and must stop right now.’
One dead as car mows down anti-fascists at white nationalist rally-AkademiPortal from Akademi Portal on Vimeo.
But Trump’s failure to condemn the act as ‘terrorism’ was met with harsh criticism.
Republican strategist Ana Navarro commented on Trump’s statement and said: ‘This is not “many sides”. It’s White Supremacist Terrorism. The President of the United States does not have the spine to say so. Shameful.’
Republican leaders like Florida Senator Marco Rubio called out the president for not describing the events in Charlottesville for what they were, ‘a terror attack by #whitesupremacists’.
Other Republican senators chimed in on similar notes.
‘The tragedy in Charlottesville this afternoon was domestic terrorism. We must all condemn hatred and white nationalism,’ Rob Portman, the Republican senator from the suspect’s home state of Ohio, said in a statement.
‘This is nothing short of domestic terrorism & should be named as such,’ tweeted Cory Gardener, a Republican senator from Colorado.
‘What ” WhiteNatjonalist” [sic] are doing in Charlottesville is homegrown terrorism that can’t be tolerated anymore that what Any extremist does,’ wrote Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley.
White nationalists reacted skeptically at the push to label the incident terrorism.
‘They’ve been looking for the great white terrorist forever now, so they’re jumping all over this,’ wrote Andrew Anglin, publisher of the alt-right website The Daily Stormer.
Meanwhile, the FBI’s Richmond field office said on Saturday that the Department of Justice was opening a federal civil rights investigation ‘into the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident that occurred earlier Saturday morning’.
Fields allegedly crossed state lines to attend the rally before the attack, giving the federal government jurisdiction to investigate.
Shocking video shows injured crowd after car plows through – AkademiPortal from Akademi Portal on Vimeo.
The FBI declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation.
In a statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions says U.S. Attorney Rick Mountcastle has begun the investigation and will have the full support of the Justice Department.
Sessions says, ‘The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice.’
He adds, ‘When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.’
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