They're STILL using Charlottesville against Trump: 7 facts to know

By Steve Baldwin

Editor's note: This column is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 will be published tomorrow.

The left's false narrative about the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, riot over a statue of Robert E. Lee has become a staple of the left's portrayal of Trump as well as conservatives in general. Joe Biden has repeatedly mentioned this event to push the phony narrative that those on the right are "white supremacists."

Indeed, it is clear that Biden's campaign strategists have decided that promoting a false version of what transpired there, and how Trump reacted to it, will be an important piece of their propaganda offensive, just as it was in the 2020 campaign.

But it's not just Democrats who have demagogued this event; there is little doubt it will also be used by some of Trump's Republican rivals, like Nikki Haley, who has already attacked Trump a number of times on this issue.

As many campaign experts say, once the Democrat Party loses substantial number of black voters, it will become nearly impossible to win nationally, and so false racist narratives have to be created and promoted to keep minorities from leaving the Democrat Party plantation.

Indeed, the Democrat Party's repeated references to Charlottesville over the last two years is a sign that they will likely use it as a key talking point not just against Trump, should he become the GOP nominee, but against GOP candidates in general in the 2024 elections. That being the case, it is extremely important that Republican leaders and candidates understand exactly what occurred in August of 2017 and be able to talk about it intelligently.

There are many misperceptions about Charlottesville, some of them spread by establishment Republicans who should know better. It's been over five years since this event occurred, and what really transpired there is quite different from the "narrative" pushed by the media and Democrat Party operatives. Let's review the major myths of Charlottesville and counter them with facts:

1. There is no connection between Trump and the Charlottesville riot. Despite repeated insinuations by the media, Trump had nothing to do with Charlottesville. He had no representatives present nor did he even know anything about it until he saw it on the news like everyone else. Nevertheless, the left has falsely claimed that Trump created the environment that led to the violence in Charlottesville, a ridiculous allegation with no evidence to support it.

As one wise observer pointed out, Charlottesville was about "Black people who were never slaves fighting white people who were never real Nazis, over a confederate statue erected by Democrats, because Democrats can't stand their own history anymore, but that's somehow Trump's fault?"

Indeed, Trump has never associated with any white supremacist or Neo-Nazi groups. Ever.

Moreover, Trump, while president, had the KKK listed as a terrorist group but, ironically, Biden will not denounce Antifa, even though the Department of Homeland Security classifies its activities as "domestic terrorist violence" and some of their leaders have been placed on the U.S. terrorism "watch list."

What's ironic is that when Black Lives Matter instigated violence against police in Dallas in 2016 and a black supremacist inspired by BLM murdered five police officers, Barack Obama met with BLM leaders in the White House. But the media did not criticize Obama for giving credibility to these violent and racist extremists. To his credit, Trump has never met with any racial extremists of any persuasion, nor will he.

2. Trump did not say anything favorable about the violence or the extremists who committed the violence. Unlike Biden, who refuses to condemn Antifa for its violent activities, Trump did condemned extremists on both sides for what occurred in Charlottesville. The left went ballistic when Trump at one point said there were "fine people on both sides," but in the same paragraph he said, "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists – because they should be condemned totally."

And, indeed, there were hundreds of non-violent protesters on both sides, mostly from Charlottesville, where liberals and conservatives have debated the statue issue for years without any interference from extremist groups. These were the people he was referring to, and he made that clear in several statements. It should also be pointed out that Trump condemned white supremacists and Nazis throughout his presidency, at least 10 times, as documented here.

The left attacked Trump because he didn't specifically condemn the extremists on the day of the riot, but, as he said, "You don't make statements that direct until you know the facts." Since he had already condemned white supremacists and Nazis more than a few times in the months leading up to Charlottesville, he didn't feel the need to do so again when he wasn't even sure of what had transpired. This is a totally reasonable position that completely undermines the left's bogus argument.

Indeed, all over the country "historic preservationist" groups have been debating with liberals about the importance of keeping monuments and statues for historical purposes. Such groups exist in nearly every city or town where Revolutionary War and Civil War statues or monuments exist. They typically raise funds to maintain these monuments, and such groups are usually diverse, both racially and politically.

It was no different in Charlottesville where a number of preservation groups exist such as the Monument Fund and the Friends of Robert E. Lee. Like most preservationist groups, the Charlottesville groups were willing to have a dialog with the left about adding monuments or plaques to the park where the Robert E. Lee statue was in order to give more balance to the history that occurred there. Preservationist groups believe that censoring our history does no good for anyone because there are valuable lessons to be learned from history. Moreover, Robert E. Lee played a key role in healing the country after the war.

After communicating with a number of preservationists, I discovered that many of them did indeed attend the "Unite the Right" protest because they assumed it was organized by garden variety conservatives. They had no idea neo-Nazis were behind it. After all, the protest was organized by out-of-town people. So yes, there were good people present on both sides that day, and anyone from Charlottesville will confirm that if they're honest.

These are the people Trump was referring to as "fine people," and for the media to automatically assume he was complimenting neo-Nazis is outrageous and irresponsible. What's ironic is that many years ago Biden said something positive about what has been considered a white-supremacy symbol – the Confederate flag – and the media were silent. He said that "people who display the Confederate flag" are fine people. Anyone smell hypocrisy?

3. The conditions for the violent protest were created by the left. The left's narrative is that this fight was started by the right, but actually the left created the conditions for this event. Virginia state law prohibits cities from removing statues, and yet Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer and Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, both radical leftists, repeatedly attacked the Robert E. Lee statue. Incidentally, Bellamy was forced to step down from the Virginia Board of Education for some racist tweets. Moreover, the city had initially proposed to change the name of the park in question – Lee Park – even though a poll showed the majority of Charlottesville residents were in support of keeping the name Lee Park. Then, contrary to state law, the city then voted 3-2 to remove the statue altogether. It is clear that the City of Charlotteville instigated this fight.

As a result, an out-of-state group, Unite the Right, responded by obtaining a permit to hold a legal protest. While Unite the Right was an extremist group, there is no evidence they were planning to use violence nor did they bring any "militias" to the protest. However, the left brought weapons and even a fully armed militia associated with Antifa called Redneck Revolt, which openly calls for communist revolution. This writer has reviewed hours of video, and it's obvious that the left initiated the vast majority of the violence and possessed most of the weapons.

Trump was absolutely correct in saying "there is blame on both sides." The hardcore communist Workers World Party was also active at Charlottesville, and its website even boasted of "throwing back … projectiles." Powerblog also documented the left's violence in Charlottesville. Even a New York Times reporter wrote about Antifa's violence: "I saw club-wielding 'Antifa' beating white nationalists being led out of the park." Nevertheless, most of the media lied and took photos and video that covered up the left's violence. Even Obama's DHS classified Antifa's activities as "domestic terrorism."

It should also be pointed out that the violence was condemned by the local Republican Party and by all the historic preservationist groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans. This event was not organized, promoted or supported by any legitimate Republican Party or conservative group.

Note: Facts 4 through 7 will be covered in tomorrow's column.

Steve Baldwin is a long-time researcher and organizer within the conservative movement. He is also a former California State legislator and for nearly a decade served as executive director of the Council for National Policy.

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