Emails show Veterans Affairs rejected a strong statement on the Charlottesville riot

Email exchanges between top officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs show that the agency sought to water down their statement condemning the white nationalist riot in Charlottesville, Va., in August of last year, according to a Wednesday report from the Washington Post.

Workplace race relations expert Georgia Coffey told John Ullyot, who served as the VA’s top communications official, via email that she wanted the department to make a stronger statement against the “repugnant display of hate and bigotry by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan.” The request came after President Trump controversially said that there were “many sides” at blame in the Charlottesville riot.