Three days after white supremacists and counter protesters clashed in the streets of Charlottesville, Va, President Trump declared Monday that “racism is evil” and said the Justice Department will open a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that left one woman dead. 

“Justice will be delivered,” he said after returning to the White House from a working vacation to meet with top federal law enforcement officials.

Specifically citing the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, Trump said such groups are “repugnant to everything we hold dear” and denounced those who carry out violent acts in the name of racism as “criminals and thugs.” 

Trump’s remarks came after an avalanche of criticism for his initial response on Saturday, in which he blamed the Charlottesville violence on “many sides” – without directly condemning white supremacists rallying to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that officials had declared an unlawful assembly.