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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Thursday said white supremacist groups did not converge on Charlottesville, Va., to protest the removal of a statue, but rather to make a show of their racist and bigoted views.

This is not just about monuments. This was a big issue that happened in this country on Saturday. These people who came to Charlottesville the neo-Nazis, the alt-right, they werent here for a statue,"McAuliffe said on CBS's "This Morning."

"Alt-right" is a term that refers to groups with views that often mix white nationalism, anti-Semitism and populism.

"They went to the University of Virginia on Friday night with their torches, that had nothing to do with a statue. There was hatred, there was bigotry that has been unleashed in this country and we need to understand how it has happened most importantly what we can do moving forward as a nation," the Virginia governor added.

Although McAuliffe did not answer whether Trump is unfit to lead the nation after failing to directly condemn the hate groups, he expressed strong disagreement with the president's statements regardingthe weekend events.

"I disagree with the president that this was all about the Lee statue," he said, adding that he just "lost three great citizens."

The demonstrations over the weekend took a deadly turn when a man with ties to the white supremacist groups allegedly drovehis car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a woman and injuring others.Two state law enforcement officers also died when a Virginia State Police helicopter crashed near the city.

The presidenthas come under fire from both Republican and Democratic lawmakersafter aggressively defending his initial remarks about the violence at an impromptu press conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday in which he failed to directly denounce hate groups and condemn racism.

On Saturday, Trump blamed "many sides" for the violence before directly condemning the hate groups on Monday. He then said"both sides" share the blame on Tuesday.

The reversal sparked a firestormamong his critics, who saidthe president was failing to take a stand so he canplease extremistsupporters within his base.

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Virginia gov: 'Alt-right' was not 'here about a statue' - The Hill