Jeff Sessions defends Trump's Charlottesville response saying 'he totally opposes' white supremacist groups

Mr Sessions says hatred, violence, bigotry, racism and white supremacy 'must be condemned in this country'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions attends a news conference at the Justice Department (AP)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vigorously defended Donald Trump’s response to bloody protests in Charlottesville, Virgina, saying the President “clearly” denounced such violence and that “he totally opposes” the values of white supremacist groups.

After Mr Trump received backlash for what critics viewed as equivocal comments on Saturday regarding the white nationalist protest, the White House on Sunday released another statement insisting that Mr Trump “condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi and all extremist groups.”

Reporters and pundits continue to point out that Mr Trump, who tends to be extremely vocal on Twitter about his thoughts, has still not made a statement himself denouncing white supremacy organisations. The statement released on Sunday by the White House was attributed to an unnamed spokesperson.

In an interview with NBC, Mr Sessions – who has faced accusations of racism that he has vehemently denied – said the President will be conferring with advisers and would “do what is correct” in relation to the Virginia incident.

“Well [Mr Trump] made a very strong statement that directly contradicted the ideology of hatred, violence, bigotry, racism, white supremacy — those things must be condemned in this country,” Mr Sessions said. “They’re totally unacceptable, and you can be sure that this Department of Justice, in his administration, is going to take the most vigorous action to protect the right of people...to protest against racism and bigotry.”

Mr Sessions was denied a federal judgeship more than 30 years ago amid explosive allegations of racial discrimination.

Washington was on high alert just a few weeks ago over whether Mr Trump would fire Mr Sessions. Along with attacking the Attorney General on Twitter, the President publicly acknowledged that he was angry with Mr Sessions for recusing himself from an investigation into Trump campaign advisers' alleged ties to Russia.

In his first response to the violence, Mr Trump did not directly denounce the actions of the neo-Nazis, skinheads, and members of the KKK who descended on Charlottesville, Virginia earlier to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. The rally of white nationalists, met by counter-protests, quickly became violent, prompting the governor to declare a ‘state of emergency’.

While most of the brawling resulted in cuts and bruises, a car bearing Ohio license plates plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring at least 19 others. James Fields, 20, the alleged driver, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Mr Fields was photographed earlier in the day before Saturday’s violence with a neo-Nazi group.

Mr Trump, who has been at his New Jersey golf club for a 17-day “working vacation”, is returning to Washington briefly on Monday to sign an executive action on China’s trade practices. He will also meet with Mr Sessions and new FBI Director Christopher Wray about Charlottesville before heading to Trump Tower in New York.

Mr Sessions told ABC that the incident involving a car ramming into a crowd of demonstrators “does meet the definition of domestic terrorism” in US law.

“We are pursuing it in the [Justice Department] in every way that we can make a case,” Mr Sessions said.

“You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought because this is unequivocally an unacceptable evil attack,” he said. “Terrorism investigators from the FBI are working on the case as well as civil rights division FBI agents.”

Speaking from a stage at his golf club in New Jersey, President Trump on Saturday decried “violence on all sides” rather than explicitly taking aim at far-right extremists, some of whom are his supporters.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,” he said. “On many sides.”

Neo-nazis applauded Mr Trump’s first response to the violent clashes, saying that it was “really, really good” that the President did not condemn them.

Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress were critical of Mr Trump's first tepid denouncement of the violence in Virginia, viewing his comments as muted and equivocal.

“Mr President - we must call evil by its name,” said Republican Senator Cory Gardner, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”