Were white nationalists really there to save a monument to Robert E. Lee?

Trump: “But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, Robert E. Lee.”

The facts: The organiser of the rally, a local right-wing blogger and activist, has said he initially was spurred because of the city’s decision to remove the statue. But he has also said the event, dubbed “Unite the Right,” came to represent much more than that.

Jason Kessler told The Associated Press last week before the event that it was “about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do.”

Those in the crowd included Ku Klux Klan members, skinheads and members of various white nationalist factions. Many were heavily armed. Some flew Nazi flags. They hurled racial slurs at counter-demonstrators and gave Nazi salutes.

White nationalist Richard Spencer — who popularised the term “alt-right” to describe the fringe movement mixing white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-immigration populism — told the AP on Tuesday that the event was more than “just a Southern heritage festival.”