Kirstjen Nielsen Re-Ups Trump’s ‘Both Sides’ Charlottesville Rhetoric

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Image by Getty Images

By Alyssa Fisher July 19, 2018

Department of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen echoed President Donald Trump’s comments about the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, in which he claimed the violence was the fault of “both sides.”

During the Aspen Security summit, Nielsen was asked about the president’s comment that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the rally, where a counter-protester was struck and killed by a man who was allegedly “infatuated” with Nazis.

“Both sides were aggressively pitted against each other,” she told NBC’s Peter Alexander, offering the solution to “prepare” and detect the “warning signs.”

Then, she added: “It’s not that one side is right and one side is wrong.”

Are white nationalists a top priority for the Trump administration? @PeterAlexander speaks with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at the #AspenSecurity Forum. pic.twitter.com/vAxou4BCDU

— The Aspen Institute (@AspenInstitute) July 19, 2018

When asked about Trump’s comment that there were “fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville, Sec. Nielsen seemingly doubled down. “it’s not that one side was right and one side was wrong” #AspenSecurity

— Tess Owen (@misstessowen) July 19, 2018

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

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