UPDATE: Jason Kessler has admitted writing the offending tweet and blamed it on drink, drugs and stress.
Original story:
The Twitter account belonging to the organiser of last weekend’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville has branded the 32-year-old woman who was killed at the event a “fat, disgusting Communist”.
Jason Kessler appears to have called the death of Heather Heyer “payback” and linked to an article on the white nationalist website, The Daily Stormer.
A person claiming to be Daily Stormer staffer Andrew Auernheimer has alleged he hacked Kessler’s account, although that has not been confirmed, the LA Times reported.
At the time of writing the tweet had been online for five hours and Kessler has not issued a further statement.
The statement is so provocative that other key backers of last week’s march have publicly distanced themselves from the 34-year-old, including Richard Spencer, most famous for once being punched.
But others on the are insisting Kessler is actually a “paid plant” controlled by the the US government to further tarnish the image of the alt-right and white supremacists.
Last weekend the organiser of the march that resulted in the deaths of three people had to be rushed away by police after attempting a press conference in Charlottesville.
Kessler, a prominent white nationalist and Trump supporter, was drowned out by cries of “murderer” before being rushed by angry onlookers on Sunday afternoon.
Kessler managed to say: ”Today I just want to come before you and tell you what really happened before this narrative is allowed to continue spinning out of control.
″The hate that you here around you - that is the anti-white hate that fuelled what happened yesterday.
“What happened yesterday was a result of the Charlottesville police officers refusing to do their job. They stood down and did not follow through with the agreed-upon security arrangements.”
The crowd then turned on him and he was tackled to the floor by one bystander.
He was helped up and rescued by the very officers he had just blamed for yesterday’s events.
The largest gathering of white supremacists on American soil in over a decade was ostensibly to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, enshrined in bronze on horseback in the city’s Emancipation Park.
Three people died - one 32-year-old woman, who was hit when a car ploughed into a crowd and two state troopers, whose helicopter crashed outside the city while responding to the situation ― and at least 35 others were injured in the Virginia city on Saturday.
Kessler denied he was in any way responsible for events and instead blamed police for suppressing the right to free speech.
As he was led away, Kessler said: “I disavow any political violence and what happened yesterday was tragic.
“The denial of First Amendment rights led to the political violence we saw yesterday.”
He did not blame the Swasitka-waving, Nazi-saluting, white supremacists chanting “BLOOD AND SOIL” and “JEWS WILL NOT REPLACE US”.