<em>The Atlantic</em> Daily: Trump Backtracks
What We’re Following
Mixed Messages: President Trump walked back his condemnation of white nationalist protesters, stating that “you also had some very fine people on both sides” of the violence in Charlottesville. The president’s return to his initial, equivocating language will likely be taken as implicit support for their cause by white supremacist groups, whose numbers have been growing since his election. These groups often cultivate a sense of victimhood to recruit new members and convince themselves that their beliefs aren’t hateful. For the rest of America, though, a voice of moral certainty comes from a surprising source—late-night comedians who offered strong critiques of Trump’s response to Charlottesville.
The U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to of people who visited the website of Disrupt J20, which organized protests on Inauguration Day. So far, the site’s host has refused to comply—but the case is unprecedented, and it’s not clear whether the large-scale search warrant exceeds the government’s authority. Meanwhile, the tech world’s approach to public speech is coming under pressure from .
