First Run News

DURHAM, N.C. — Sheriff’s deputies in this predominantly liberal city on Tuesday began arresting protesters they said tore down a statue honoring pro-slavery secessionists, while the state’s Democratic governor pledged to repeal a state law that had prevented such monuments from being removed through legal means. Protesters had gathered in Durham on Monday evening to support victims of the weekend’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which had been called in opposition to the removal of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

President Trump is not generally known as a student of history. But on Tuesday, during a combative exchange with reporters at Trump Tower in New York, he unwittingly waded into a complex debate about history and memory that has roiled college campuses and numerous cities over the past several years. Asked about the white nationalist rally that ended in violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Va., Mr. Trump defended some who had gathered to protect a statue of Robert E.

The chief executive of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, criticized President Trump in front of his 1.5 million American employees, widening a rift between the White House and the business community that has been growing since the weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va. “As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists,” Douglas McMillon, the Walmart C.E.O., wrote in a letter to employees late Monday.

WASHINGTON — President Trump refused on Tuesday to guarantee the job security of his embattled chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, defending Mr. Bannon as “not a racist” and “a friend” but repeating his jibe that he had been a Johnny-come-lately to the Trump campaign. The ouster of Mr. Bannon, a self-described leader of the alt-right movement, has become a rallying cry for supporters and opponents of the president, from Rupert Murdoch to Anthony Scaramucci.

Two women injured during the right-wing extremist protest last weekend in Charlottesville, Va., filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking damages from the rally’s organizer and more than two dozen leaders, groups and websites affiliated with the self-proclaimed alt-right. The suit was filed with the Circuit Court in Charlottesville by Tadrint Washington and her sister Micah Washington, who said they were physically and emotionally injured when a man the police have identified as James Alex Fields Jr., 2

WASHINGTON — President Trump buoyed the white nationalist movement on Tuesday as no president has done in generations — equating activists protesting racism with the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who rampaged in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend. Never has he gone as far in defending their actions as he did during a wild, street-corner shouting match of a news conference in the gilded lobby of Trump Tower, angrily asserting that so-called alt-left activists were just as responsible for the bloody confrontation as marchers brandishing swastikas, Confederate battle flags, anti-Semitic ba

President Trump gave an update on the administration’s efforts on infrastructure on Tuesday at Trump Tower, and then held a combative question-and-answer session that touched on the violence in Charlottesville, Va., his view on removing Confederate statues, Stephen K. Bannon’s role in the White House and more. Following is a transcript of those remarks, as prepared by The New York Times. It has been lightly edited for clarity.