Vice President Mike Pence, traveling in South America, condemned “these dangerous fringe groups” and said they “have no place in American public life and in the American debate.”

Trump, meanwhile, remained out of sight and silent, save for a few retweets. In the hours after a car plowed into a group of anti-racist counter-protesters on Saturday, Trump addressed the violence in broad strokes, saying that he condemns “in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.”

Speaking slowly from his New Jersey golf club while on a 17-day working vacation, Trump added: “It’s been going on for a long time in our country. The attorney general said a more sweeping condemnatory statement released by the White House on Sunday, a day after Trump’s remarks, reflected the president’s views. “The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.” It added: “He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

The White House did not attach a name to the statement. “I certainly think anytime that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it is terrorism,” McMaster told ABC’s “This Week.” “It meets the definition of terrorism. But what this is, what you see here, is you see someone who is a criminal, who is committing a criminal act against fellow Americans.”

The president’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, defended the president’s initial statement by suggesting that some of the counter-protesters were violent, too. The president’s daughter and White House aide, Ivanka Trump, tweeted Sunday morning: “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said he spoke to Trump in the hours after the clashes and that he twice told the president “we have to stop this hateful speech, this rhetoric.” He said he urged Trump “to come out stronger” against the actions of white supremacists. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.” Added Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.: “Nothing patriotic about #Nazis,the #KKK or #WhiteSupremacists It’s the direct opposite of what #America seeks to be.”

The president did not have any public events on Sunday. They have supplanted the old hotbeds of racist, anti-government and fascist activism, including the notorious Ku Klux Klan, which has dwindled to a few thousand members. Duke told reporters that the white nationalists were working to “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.”

Trump’s initial comments drew praise from the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, which wrote: “Trump comments were good. ... No condemnation at all.” The website had been promoting the Charlottesville demonstration as part of its “Summer of Hate” edition. Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, a Democrat, slammed Trump’s stance toward hate groups, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he hopes Trump “looks himself in the mirror and thinks very deeply about who he consorted with.”

“Old saying: when you dance with the devil, the devil doesn’t change, the devil changes you,” Signer said.
Several internet companies, such as domain registrar GoDaddy and video game chat application Discord, shut down services for neo-Nazi, white supremacist, alt-right website The Daily Stormer for violation of terms of service, and in response to this weekend's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.