UNEXPECTED

Melania Offers First White House Comment on Charlottesville Violence

Beat her husband to the punch.

Melania Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to denounce violent clashes at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, offering the White House's first public comment on the matter before the president got around to it. “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence,” Melania wrote. President Donald Trump issued his own slightly more vague statement a short time later. “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!” he wrote. Authorities declared a state of emergency after clashes broke out between protesters and counterprotesters on Saturday afternoon, with police making an undisclosed number of arrests after the National Guard was called in.