There was already trouble Friday night when old-fashioned KKK racists and Nazis and new-fashioned alt-right Trump supporters descended on Charlottesville looking for trouble. This is something they’ve been promoting for weeks in the fever swamps of TrumpWorld. On Friday night they were screeching anti-Black and anti-Semitic chants, marching around waving cheap Walmart tiki torches.

Although officially organized by several fascist groups, the League of the South, the National Socialist Movement, the Traditionalist Workers Party, the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights and Vanguard America and Identity Evropa, this was nothing short of a warning from the Bannon wing of the Trump Regime to remember that Trump’s supporters are easily roused to violence and — that “if Trump is removed there will be blood in the streets.”

Much of the country was stunned and horrified that after the first death yesterday, Trump was finally forced to say something. But his message was basically to blame both sides, referring to what happened as an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” Many sides of what? The movement he’s the titular head of? Politico noted that “white nationalists cited Trump’s victory as validation for their beliefs, and Trump’s critics pointed to the president’s racially tinged rhetoric as exploiting the nation’s festering racial tension.”

The organizers had named their weekend of racist rallies, “Unite the Right.” Both avowed Nazi Richard Spencer and KKK leader David Duke were present. Duke was quick to declare Charlottesville a “turning point” for a movement that aims to “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.”

When I asked Alan Grayson what he thought of the conflagration he told me that

“David Duke said it far beyond my poor power to add or detract. Duke said that the racists are trying ‘to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.’ If the hood fits, wear it.”

Michael Keegan, President of People for the American Way, spoke for all Americans — except Nazis and racists, obviously, when he said that yesterday’s events were

“heartbreaking and infuriating. When Donald Trump was elected president, many of us feared that his election would embolden radical extremists and white supremacists. Today shows that those concerns were entirely justified. Moreover, the President’s refusal to clearly and emphatically denounce a group of Nazis and white supremacists underscores his longstanding willingness to exploit the Right’s most hateful impulses for political gain — as well as the GOP’s willingness to abide Trump’s tactics of hate in order to push its own ideological agenda. Elected officials should make clear in no uncertain terms that they condemn the hate and racism of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally and its leaders, and they won’t associate with those who do otherwise. Our thoughts are with the victims of today’s terror attack, as well as with their families and loved ones. I’m grateful for the activists of every race and creed who are standing up for their values every day in nonviolent protest in Charlottesville and across the country. They, not those who spew bigotry and hatred, represent the true American way.”

We got in touch with Jenny Marshall, the progressive candidate running in the central North Carolina district represented by bigot Virginia Foxx:

“Americans across this country,” Jenny told us, “must stand together in condemning the aims of white supremacy and white nationalism. While our government must protect freedom of speech, we, as its citizens, have a duty to reject the violence provoking, hate speech and intimidation shown by the alt-right. Our president and his administration have been silent as our fellow Muslim citizens in Minnesota had their mosque attacked and again during these horrific events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We cannot wait for his leadership in this matter, as it is obviously lacking. So, now is the time for America’s citizens to gather together and resoundingly reject bigotry and racism. We must show the world that love trumps hate.”

We reached out to prominent civil rights attorney Jim Thompson, who is running for the Wichita-based Kansas congressional seat. We want his eloquent words to be the official Blue America response to the tragedy in Charlottesville: