Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day August 15th, 2017, President Donald Trump gives a press conference in which he

is pushed to offer remarks about the protests and violence that had taken place in

Charlottesville, Virginia a few days earlier. and violence marched ostensibly in support of protests over the fate of a Robert E. Lee statue, but the march turned

into much more than that. I'm sure listeners will remember this, but this was the teaky torches,

the chance of things like Jews will not replace us, the proud boys, the

alt-right, neo-Nazis, K K K K K K were all in the mix, as well as counter-protesters.

And we will go through a little bit of that day in the aftermath the counter

protesters the violence the woman who was killed and of course Trump's reaction

both on the day of and on this day August 15th when among other things he uttered that phrase

about there being quote very fine people on both sides of these protests and that was I

would argue one of the defining quotes of Trump's presidency and one that has been politicized and twisted both in the moment and to this day with Trump and Trump supporters claiming that he never really said it,

that the quote was taken out of context. So let's talk about that context not that long

ago but worth revisiting as a key moment in our modern political history. Here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello Jody.

Hey there. Nicki obviously you were living in Charlottesville at the time I was I lived like a couple blocks

where all this went down and was there on August 12th at the scene of the so-called United

the right rally.

And you've certainly written a lot about it since,

and this fits into your research,

...