Speaker of the House Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) condemned the gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va. on Saturday, calling the views of the protestors “repugnant.”

“The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant,” Ryan said in a tweet. “Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.”

The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry. — Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 12, 2017

ADVERTISEMENT

Ryan’s tweet came as Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) declared a state of emergency, with clashes between white nationalists and counter-protestors growing violent.

Fights broke out hours before a protests was scheduled in Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park, where white supremacists, white nationalists and alt-right groups were gathering, originally prompted by opposition to the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Saturday’s rally followed a Friday night protest in which hundreds of white nationalists carrying torches marched through the campus of the University of Virginia.

Police arriving on the scene declared the protest an "unlawful assembly" and told demonstrators to disperse after there marchers wound their way through campus shouting slogans like “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us.”