During a Good Morning America interview on Friday, the mother of the woman who was killed in Charlottesville last Saturday, allegedly by a Nazi sympathizer, said that following President Trump’s public defense of a white supremacist rally, she’s no longer interesting in talking with him.
Trump has compared the Nazis, KKK members, and white supremacists who organized the rally in Charlottesville with those who showed up to protest them, saying there was blame on “both sides.” Heather Heyer — the woman who was killed — was among the counter-protesters. (Nineteen others were injured when the alleged Nazi sympathizer drove his car through a crowd of counter-protesters.)
Susan Bro, mother of Heyer, said that Trump first called her during her daughter’s funeral on Wednesday.
“I was home recovering from the exhaustion of the funeral, and so I thought, well I’ll get to him later,” Bro said. “So I hadn’t really watched the news until last night. And I’m not talking to the president now, I’m sorry, after what he said about my child. It’s not that I saw somebody else’s tweets about him, I saw an actual clip of him at a press conference equating the protesters — ‘like Ms. Heyer’ — with the KKK and the white supremacists.”
WATCH: "You can't wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying I'm sorry." Mother of Charlottesville victim speaks out. pic.twitter.com/vNiGNgFERi
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 18, 2017
Bro was referring to press conference Trump gave on Wednesday, during which he accused demonstrators who had gathered to protest the white supremacist rally as “violently attacking the other group.” Trump went on to endorse the ostensible reason for the rally, which was the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, said “there’s blame on both sides,” and claimed “very fine people” were among the white supremacists.
Even as Trump criticized the counter-protesters, he praised Heyer as “beautiful and incredible… a truly special young woman.”
Memorial service today for beautiful and incredible Heather Heyer, a truly special young woman. She will be long remembered by all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017
Bro, however, isn’t buying it.
“You can’t wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying I’m sorry,” she said during the Good Morning America interview. “I’m not forgiving for that.”
Bro’s comments on Friday came the morning after she told MSNBC that she has received death threats since her daughter’s death.
“I think the president has found a niche in voters of the people who feel marginalized and I think he has continued to nurture those marginalized voters,” she said. “I’ve had death threats already … because of what I’m doing right this second.”