Some of New Jersey’s leaders say that the events that transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend have to stop and they say that hate has no place in the United States.

New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell says that President Donald Trump’s initial statements over the weekend failing to condemn groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis have given those groups a voice. He referred to Trump as the “chief enabler.”

"Now their beliefs are validated by the president who took white nationalism to the dance during his campaign,” Pascrell said during a news conference outside Secaucus City Hall.

President Trump spoke again on the matter Monday afternoon condemning the hate groups as “thugs.”

"Racism is evil," he said, singling out the hate groups as "repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans."

White nationalists clashed with counter-protesters over the weekend. Various right-wing groups initially staged an organized demonstration to protest Charlottesville’s removal of Confederate statues.

Authorities say counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed when a white nationalist drove a car through a crowd. The suspect, James Alex Fields Jr., faces second-degree murder charges.

Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect director Steve Goldstein joined Rep. Pascrell at the news conference in Secaucus.

"The terrorists in America today are not Muslim refugees or the grandmothers who want to join them,” he said. "The terrorists are the Islamaphobes and the anti-Semites and Nazi sympathizers. And the racists."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions also spoke out against the actions in Charlottesville. He stated that Heyer’s death was an act of domestic terrorism.

The FBI is also investigating