Franklin Graham castigates politicians who blame Trump for Charlottesville riot

Famed evangelist Franklin Graham came out in defense of President Donald Trump, who is currently being blamed by his critics for the deadly clash that occurred during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Graham condemned the violence at the rally and castigated the politicians who are blaming the president for the riot.

"Shame on the politicians who are trying to push blame on President Trump for what happened in #Charlottesville, VA. That's absurd," Graham wrote.

"What about the politicians such as the city council who voted to remove a memorial that had been in place since 1924, regardless of the possible repercussions? How about the city politicians who issued the permit for the lawful demonstration to defend the statue? And why didn't the mayor or the governor see that a powder keg was about to explode and stop it before it got started?" he added.

Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, went on to say that blame lies with Satan, who the evangelist says wants division, unrest, violence and hatred.

The rally in Charlottesville on Saturday came in response to the city's plan to remove a Confederate statue from a local park.

The protesters, which included neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and white nationalists, were met with hundreds of counter-protesters, resulting in street brawls and violent clashes.

During the protest, James Alex Fields Jr., an alleged Nazi sympathizer, reportedly ran a car into a crowd of activists, killing one person and injuring at least 19 other people.

On Monday, Fields was charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene.

The suspect's mother, Samantha Bloom, said she knew that her son was attending a rally, but she thought that it was a rally for Trump, not for white nationalists.

In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Charlottesville Democratic Mayor Michael Signer blamed Trump for the violence, saying the president had courted white supremacists during his presidential campaign and that it emboldened them to start acting out more publicly.

Signer, however, noted that the unrest over the weekend is much bigger than the president and was a reflection of the erosion of democracy.

Trump's initial statement has condemned violence on both sides, but some faith leaders criticized the president for not immediately denouncing white supremacists. The White House later clarified that Trump officially condemns white supremacist groups.