1 Are you willing to die today? Of course. Are you willing to kill today? Of course. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. Hand-to-hand combat is coming to small-town America. Don't touch me! (BLEEP)! In the fallout from Charlottesville, as the Confederate statues come down, the war of words becomes a lightning rod. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group` Excuse me. Excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. We've actually heard that there's good guys on both sides. That's a failure to fundamentally understand what white supremacists are all about. That is dangerous. God bless America! Tonight ` our 20/20 cameras take you into both extreme sides of the barrier,... Doughnuts and rifles ` that's the American breakfast right there. ...into the top-secret location and minds of a hate group... If anybody's blood is gonna run in the streets tomorrow, it's gonna be theirs! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) White power! ...and into the opposition,... I'm a mom. I shop at Trader Joe's. ...who hate what the white nationalists stand for. My passion is fighting fascism. I'm not trying to shut them up; I'm trying to shut them down. Hail our people. Hail victory! Tonight, leaders from both sides come face-to-face as our cameras roll. Because if the goal is an all-white homeland ` that is the goal ` how do you do that within the laws in the United States? You're not gonna stop us, because you don't matter. Yes, we will stop you. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Kia ora, I'm Carolyn Robinson. Welcome to 20/20. Tonight, an uncomfortable and confronting story as we take a look into the rise of alt-right and white nationalist groups in America. There's a growing sense of uncertainty across the United States as more statues of Confederate generals are taken down ` symbols of a nation divided. But now it's happening in the shadow of Charlottesville and President Trump's comments that both sides share the blame for that tragic day. Tonight, Tom Llamas will bring you unparalleled access to what led to that horrific flashpoint in a quiet Virginia town. (GRUNTING) CHANTING: Jews will not replace us! When you look at Charlottesville, especially that Friday night with the tiki torches,... CHANTING: One people! One nation! End immigration! I think the country was shocked because those folks looked like people in your neighbourhood. (YELLING, CLAMOURING) They didn't have the robes. They didn't have the tattoos all over their body. They looked like somebody that you might know. The shocking images, the killing in the street. The car just ploughed through hundreds of people. CHANTING: Burn that (BLEEP)! Burn that (BLEEP)! The violence in Virginia last weekend was just the most recent and most tragic confrontation between a new breed of white supremacists... (CLAMOURING) CHANTING: White lives matter! ...and a militant resistance. (BANG!) We're seeing a period of unusual, intense polarization among the population and in the political arena. I called you an idiot. This guy called you a (BLEEP). I called you an idiot. Just get over there where you belong! For the past six months, we've been crisscrossing the country, tracking all this political violence, embedded with both sides, from their biggest brawls to their secret meetings. Tonight, a lot of what you will hear is gonna be hard to hear and difficult. But you need to understand where it all began. Our story starts here. Knock the crap out of 'em, would you? Seriously. (CHEERING) OK? Just knock the hell` I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise. Last year, the Trump campaign inspired many types of people. Fired the first shot in the race war, baby! Among them, Matt Heimbach, a rising star of a white nationalist movement that calls itself the alt-right. We're here to say that we're here to defend our heritage. President trump has denounced groups like Heimbach's. Racism is evil. But Heimbach says the president been an inspiration. He's opened up a door. His movement has opened up a door, but it's up to us to take the initiative. The Southern Poverty Law Center says the number of hate rose last year to near its all-time high, Now leaders like Heimbach admit to a newfound energy. I think he's a reflection of the excitement that Mr Trump has engendered in the white supremacist movement. Get out of here! Get out! Out! Out! Out! That's Heimbach at a Trump rally last March ` the guy with the beard and the red hat ` striking and then shoving this African American protester as she's being led away. He later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. There wouldn't be any violence at Trump rallies if, of course, the far left protesters hadn't gone into the rallies and tried to disrupt them. Isn't there something to be said about decency? Clearly you're on that video pushing a woman from the back. You have a right to defend yourself. The antagonists of the alt-right are really a loose-knit group of activists, who prefer to be called the Antifa movement, short for anti-fascist. Right now, we're in a very dangerous place, we're in a very troubling place. Lacy MacAuley, a self-described anarchist and mild-mannered worker at a non-profit by day, was one of the few Antifa activists willing to go on camera for this report. A lot of people basically have been responding by caring to join the anti-fascist movement. Antifa is on the hard left. In fact, many would argue parts of them aren't even left. They're anarchists. (CLAMOURING) And they're not afraid to play rough. At this Trump campaign rally in San Jose last June, I saw it up close. What happened? I was walking down the street and this guy, like, sucker-punched me in the back of the head. Antifa protestors brutalized Trump supporters at random ` throwing eggs at them,... Oh my God! ...beating them bloody and attacking their cars. There's no doubt that the Antifa believe that physical confrontation is necessary to prevent the rise of white supremacy. The protests didn't cool down when Trump won the election... The man who will be the 45th President of the United States, Donald J Trump. ...while the alt-right rejoiced. The alt-right is a overwhelmingly young movement. It was at this notorious conference in November that much of the country was introduced to Richard Spencer, the self-styled intellectual who coined the term 'alt-right'. Because Donald Trump means that the world is changing. It means that something new is coming into the political reality. Several eagerly joined in his enthusiastic Nazi salute. Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory! Let's not sugar-coat this ` he's a Nazi. For a lot of Americans who saw that, it was terrifying. I knew that I was being highly provocative when I said, 'Hail Trump.' I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. To be clear, most Trump supporters aren't alt-right demonstrators. Most Trump resisters are not Antifa. But those mobilized minorities at the extremes can have a big impact. And January 20th, Inauguration Day, became D-day for both sides. And many of the people 20/20 has been following for months were right in the middle of it. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear... Just blocks away, some members of Lacy MacAuley's Antifa group, Disrupt J20, swung into action, torching a limousine and scuffling with police. There's a massive undertaking in the district to actually oppose the inauguration of Donald J Trump. MacAuley believes hate speech is the equivalent of violence and can be answered with violence. And we've seen her take on armed white supremacists with little more than a bullhorn. So why do these confrontations always get so violent? I mean, yes, you might have your hot-headed 19-year-olds. Antifa who I know are really trying to actually act in self-defence. But what about the vandalism and harassment here of an inaugural ball guest perpetrated by some of her associates, using so-called 'black bloc' tactics? Everyone wears the same colour. Hey, basic black. It's trendy. And also just, you know, wearing the mask, again, to conceal your identity. The world got a glimpse of these tactics in action when some in MacAuley's group, clad all in black, smashed the windows of a Starbucks and a Bank of America. Breaking a window is a symbolic act. Windows break all the time. Things break all the time. So this is your home. If after this interview, if I broke all your windows in a symbolic act, you'd be OK with that? That would be a symbolic act. I mean, if you wanted to protest this interview, you can break the windows. And there that day at a command post in McPherson Square, Daryle Lamont Jenkins, a truck driver from Philadelphia who describes himself as the 'intelligence expert' for Antifa, keeping tabs on Spencer, Heimbach, and their alt-right ilk. So you're a watchdog, in essence? Correct. Mm-hm. We basically just report what we see. We go anywhere they go. On the other side, Matt Heimbach was there, and Richard Spencer turned up as well. I've given conferences for ages. And we usually expect some protestors. They'll do silly string or something like that. Then a turning point. Watch this. Spencer was conducting an interview when ` wait for it ` (YELLING) a man walked up and punches him right in the face in the middle of the street. If you're doing something important, you're going to be attacked verbally and even physically. So I'm willing to go through with it. The attack went viral instantly and sparked a spirited internet debate about whether or not it was OK to punch a Nazi. WOMAN CHANTS: Every nation! Every race! GROUP CHANT: Punch a Nazi in the face! Was that OK? I think that you saw a lot of people actually very inspired by the fact that the Nazis are not invincible. Of course it's not OK to punch a Nazi, any more than it's OK to punch a doctor who performs abortion, if you believe abortion is murder. The same people who insist that they are in the right when they are engaging in violence would be horrified if the roles were reversed. As fate would have it, just hours after Spencer was punched, the roles were reversed. On inauguration night in Seattle, an anti-Trump activist was injured by a gunshot through the abdomen. Hey, police! The only individual who's ever been shot at one of these rallies, he was an Antifa member. And he was shot by a MAGA-hat-wearing Trump fan. Here's some reality ` 74% of the extremist-related killings in this country in the past 10 years have been carried out by right-wing extremists. Given all that, you'd think Spencer and the alt-right might have wanted to dial things back. But instead, he was just getting started. They brought the fight to us. There was a war started. And those sons of bitches started the war, and so we're going to respond to them. When we come back, the alt-right is heading to campus, trying to recruit America's youth, and the resistance is there to greet them. This is our home! CHANTING: Communist scum, off our streets! Communist scum, off our streets! And inside an alt-right conclave. You never know who you'll meet. I'm a Baptist preacher, so I got to maintain a low profile. When we come back, we meet some of these white supremacists, and we ask them, 'What do you stand for?' 1 Welcome back to 20/20 and tonight's look at the great divide in American society right now ` the issue of race. As Fractured America continues, Tom Llamas gets an exclusive look at a gathering of white nationalist groups. It's there he meets Matt Heimbach, a soft-spoken delivery truck driver and father of two, who's a leader of a neo-Nazi group; and Richard Spencer, the frontman for a white supremacist group that wants a white homeland in the United States. This spring, we travelled up a gravel mountain road near a reclaimed coalmine,... Why don't you back the car down here? Let me get a work detail. We're standing in solidarity for the white race. ...where we've managed to get special access to a conclave of white nationalist groups... The Knight Riders of the Ku Klux Klan. ...convened to discuss a favourite topic ` the future. This is not business as usual. This is a political revolution. And tomorrow belongs to us. Defeat never; victory forever. Hail victory! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) There are several speakers here... We are white people! We are Aryan! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) ...but none quite like Matt Heimbach, who is practically worshipped by many of his followers. How's it going? Very well, sir. God bless. Matt Heimbach is extremely articulate, well spoken, he is a genius, and he is what's taking this movement forward. They see me as their leader, the one that's fighting for them. And I couldn't do any of this without them. Do you look up to someone like Adolf Hitler? Of course, we look up to men like Adolf Hitler. We look up to him as inspirations for what we can achieve. Also inspired to follow Heimbach here, some who prefer to remain anonymous. I'm a Baptist preacher, so I got to maintain a low profile. Can I get a selfie with you, brother? Of course. All right! There's a festive mood as they pose for photos and load up on SS patches and other Nazi-themed merchandise. Heimbach was making headlines back in 2014 for his attempt to form white student groups at college campuses. CHANTING: Racists, fascists, anti-gay. KKK, go away. This is what happened when they stopped by Indiana University. Get out of here! Today, Heimbach, a delivery truck driver and a father of two, says his moment has arrived. Is your movement on the upswing? Our movement is growing very, very quickly. Heimbach's ideology is nothing new, but what's most disarming and disturbing is his manner ` friendly, soft-spoken. This teddy bear of a guy looks like he belongs behind the counter of an ice cream parlour. Thank you, gentlemen. So the Klan wore hoods. They hid their identity. Why don't you guys wear hoods? We have nothing to hide. We're here to bring our message to our people and to fight for them. Needless to say, aside from street-level actions, Heimbach has discovered the power of social media, especially YouTube. Hello, comrades. Miscarriage of justice that have been done in the name of civil rights. ...that our people are currently in bondage to. They hate white people. Combatting the Jewish system. Jewish oligarchs. Jewish tyranny. It's just basic, like, speaking videos. Not like shooting a Hollywood movie. Don't need a big Jewish budget. And do you hate Jewish people? Oh, hate? Do they hate me? I don't know. I'm asking you. We were with Heimbach back in April when he arrived at Alabama's Auburn University with his posse. He's here to support alt-right leader Richard Spencer in a nationwide campus recruiting effort. Since mid-2016, we've documented about 250 instances of white supremacist flyers and recruitment going on on college campuses. We are here to be able to ensure that they are going to be able to hear Mr Spencer's message, one that should hopefully inspire the white students to love their people. Private school educated, from a wealthy family, sharply dressed. Spencer presents as the white nationalist for the upper tax brackets. He had two goals ` one, make white nationalism more intellectualized and have a greater appeal to young people by toning down some of the more obvious uses of Nazi symbology. Greatness is far more important than equality. Equality is for losers. Why not just call it white supremacy? Why not call it neo-Nazism? Whenever anyone stands up for our identity, we get called this collection of names like, 'You're a neo-Nazi.' The idea that Hitler has a monopoly on identity for white people is just simply ridiculous. He's nothing more than a spoiled little rich kid who's never had a real job other than conservative propagandist. Antifa activist Daryle Jenkins has attended many Spencer events... (CLAMOURING) ...and today his comrades would love to stop Spencer from delivering what they consider a dangerous speech. It's not so much shutting them up; it's about shutting them down. Afraid of violence, Auburn's administration revokes Spencer's permission to speak. Professor Geoffrey Stone says caving in to the mob is a mistake. What happens then is anyone who wants to speak, if other people want to shut them down, all they basically have to do is say, 'Well, we're going to be violent. We're going to disrupt. We're going to riot.' And then the police will go and shut down the speakers. Spencer, happy to play the first-amendment martyr, takes the fight to court. We are on 85 south. We are going to the courthouse to file an injunction. Hours later, the court says it's a clear first-amendment issue. Auburn University cannot stop Spencer from speaking on campus. I thought our chances for victory were slim, but we did it. An hour before Spencer speaks, the action outside is already heating up. And Heimbach's men chant... CHANTING: Communist scum, off our streets! Communist scum, off our streets! If you believe America is a communist country, you are a traitor. ...as students make their position clear. This is our home! This is our home! Finally, flanked by private security and a police escort, Spencer makes his entrance. (CHEERING) Despite a few interruptions, he makes his case. Systematic discrimination against white people at all levels of society. So white supremacy, he says, requires a white homeland to flourish. There is nothing that can stop an idea whose time has come. And that time is now! His followers up front cheer while some students sit in stony silence. 90 minutes later, his mission accomplished, Spencer takes off in a fast retreat. Just get in the car. Yeah. CHANTING: Spencer sucks! Spencer sucks! Heimbach isn't as lucky. With no police to protect him, an angry crowd soon descends on him, and he is literally chased down the street. CHANTING: No Nazis! No Nazis! that I'm willing to die. And that might sound stark. That might sound a little scary. A little dramatic. A little dramatic. Sure. But the fact is, you know, politics can be a... it can be a war. CHANTING: No KKK, no fascist USA! A Spencer victory? Perhaps. But coming up ` Antifa strikes back... CHANTING: No more Nazis! ...as neo-Nazis prepare to descend on a small Kentucky town. HEIMBACH: Hold it together! Fascism is about discipline, gentlemen. We'll have that clash when 20/20 comes back right after this break. 1 Welcome back. Tonight's 20/20 is the culmination of a six-month investigation into the far-right white supremacist groups that are on the rise in Donald Trump's United States. As Fractured America continues, our cameras are on hand as these white supremacists come face-to-face with protesters from the far left of Antifa in Trump heartland Pikeville, Kentucky. We've travelled deep into the rolling mountains of Appalachia to reach Pikeville, Kentucky, infamous for the family feud between the Hatfields and McCoys, remembered today in TV drama and on whimsical statues on Main Street. But now two more warring clans ` Antifa and white supremacists ` are heading here for a high-noon showdown. No longer will you be the silent majority. You have a voice. This is Trump country. He garnered 80% of the votes here. So Matt Heimbach sees fertile ground for his next big racist rally and to recruit for his cause of creating a whites-only homeland. Our strongest area of membership is in Appalachia and in the rust belt. This is an area where people have just been left behind by the economy, where white folks feel that they don't have an advocate. We are preparing for the worst, hoping for the best. Because of past violence by masked Antifa, the Inauguration Day action in Washington, and this violent protest in February at the University of California, Berkeley, Pikeville City manager Donovan Blackburn is worried. The counter-protesters and the Antifa are the groups that I am concerned about. The city passes an emergency order banning masks and hoods, and Blackburn urges downtown shops to close. It's now the evening before. The typically bustling Friday night streets are abandoned. We would have a front row seat to it, if we chose to. But we want to get out of the way. Several miles away, the neo Nazis are at that camp up in the mountains, starting their Saturday morning. No bagels but plenty of bullets. Doughnuts and rifles ` that's the American breakfast right there. Doesn't get more patriotic than that. They're unconcerned about their sworn enemies. These are trust fund kids. These are heroin-addicted, noodle-armed, skinny, you know... (BLEEP) Most are well armed. We're prepared to defend ourselves. As you can see, many of us are armed, and we're ready. I'm gonna grab... The morning starts with a lesson on how to wear gas masks... You're going to close your eyes, and you're going to hold your breath. ...and military training on how to stand in formation and march. It's a bit difficult to get with the synchronicity of it all. We want to be like ants. We're a colony and we just go and destroy everything. Then the final touches. We're carrying shields for a reason ` to be able to defend ourselves against their attacks. That phrase 'nog ar nog' is Swedish for enough is enough. They got a track record like crazy of, like, committing violence. They behave themselves like escaped zoo animals. They like to throw faecal matter, water balloons full of urine. They're going to be required to stay on one side of the street, and if they do try to cross the barrier to attack us, the police should intervene. Early Saturday morning down in Pikeville,... I need you clear-minded today. ...police chief Phillip Reed briefs his men. We've got a mission today. This is as real as it gets. A lot of emotion, a lot of excitement, a lot of adrenaline, a lot of unforeseen things could possibly happen. ALL: Amen. That is, like, awesome. Remember those Antifa activists Daryle Lamont Jenkins and Lacy MacAuley? They're pulling into town now in advance of their fellow troops, whom they've alerted through social media. Thunderstorms apparently in the forecast. They'll just wash away the stink that the Nazis bring with them. Lacy's concerned that it's legal here to openly carry weapons, a right the opposition is proudly exercising. Yeah. It's a little scary. I don't want to be a martyr or anything. Today, she's embracing the first amendment, not the second. Got extra batteries. Black bandana and also the anti-fascism symbol ` universal anti-fascism symbol ` three arrows pointing down. Daryle, though, opts for more subtle, sophisticated tactics. He knows Antifa actions can turn violent, and he understands it, but he fears it's a stain on the movement. That's what's generating the attention. I don't want that to be the thing that generates attention, but unfortunately, that's what happened. Rather than fight in the street, Jenkins prefers to fight online. He takes photos of alt-right demonstrators, identifying them by name and exposing them online. Yeah, what are you gonna do? We're gonna put it all over the place. What else? There's nothing else to do. And so what? A process called doxxing, short for documenting. Why spend all this time? Why hunt these people down? Like, what is your goal? To expose them? Because there are some people out there that don't want to be exposed, and they may pose even a greater threat than anybody that doesn't mind. (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS RAPIDLY) Laura Sennett is another seemingly unlikely Antifa researcher. I'm a mom. I shop at Trader Joe's. (LAUGHS) And for years, Sennett has doxxed along with Daryle. When you are looking at posts from a woman who is a mental health nurse and she's talking about how she wishes she could poison all the minority patients that she has in her ward, yes, her personal information, and those quotes and those screen shots went out to the public, absolutely. CHANTING: You will not replace us! And as two demonstrators at Charlottesville found out, that means consequences. Cole White and Peter Tefft were both outed online. Since then, White left his job at a California hot dog shop, and Tefft's own father publicly disowned him, denouncing his son's... You want to make sure these groups don't enter the mainstream? Exactly. Because no one's paying attention to them. And sooner or later, they're going to be your police officers, they're going to be your politicians, they're going to be your teachers. They are going to be people that you cannot touch. And I don't want that to happen. In Pikeville, the showdown is moments away. Police have closed the streets to traffic and are taking their positions. We're all praying for a peaceful demonstration. (PROTESTERS CHANT) Will those prayers be answered? CHANTING: Punch a Nazi in the face! You can't get angry. These people are politically confused. Or will hotter heads prevail? (YELLING) (BLEEP)! (BLEEP)! You'll see what happens when 20/20 continues after this break. 1 Welcome back to 20/20 and tonight's story, a look into the two extremes of American politics right now ` the white supremacists on the far right and the anti-fascists on the far left. The two groups are coming face-to-face in a small Kentucky town. It's deep in the heart of Trump country. And the white supremacists are holding a rally to recruit new members. The far left Antifa are there to try and stop them, and in the middle, the local police force. Here's reporter Tom Llamas. (TENSE MUSIC) Now it's going down. (PROTESTERS CHANTING) The Antifa supporters are the first to march into downtown Pikeville. (PROTESTERS CHANTING) You make me sick! Along with signs and noisemakers, they're prepared with their own medics just in case of trouble. Heimbach's group is more than an hour late. His convoy got lost en route from the mountains after making a wrong right turn. Move it over. Form lines. Hold formation. They march straight into a wild cacophony of noise and chants, led by Lacy MacAuley on her bullhorn. CHANTING: We don't want no white state. We say no to racist hate! (YELLING, CHANTING) Get the (BLEEP) out! Sieg heil! Sieg heil! Hey! Hold it together! Fascism is about discipline, gentlemen. These people are not worthy of your time. Both sides are armed, some Antifa with clubs, white supremacists with guns. But police are taking no chances. The hundreds of protesters have been restricted to fenced-in pens on opposite sides of this downtown square, with a line of police officers keeping them apart. Matthew Heimbach! Matthew Heimbach! You can't get angry. These people are politically confused. CHANTING: Hiel Heimbach! Hiel Heimbach! (CHUCKLES) All right. Thank you, gentlemen. I'm going to remember that the rest of my life. Daryle Jenkins is snapping photos for his doxxing campaign. Hey, how you doing? One man attempted to reason with the opposition. OK, I know what you mean, man. Ignorant hillbillies. You've said enough. Just shut up. Several speakers try to punch through, but the noise is overwhelming. Greetings from the Christian Knights and the Global Crusaders of the Ku Klux Klan. You have been brainwashed in the matrix and you've been turned into pitiful sheeple. As tensions rise, demonstrators on each side jump the fences. Police rush to push each back behind their barriers, desperate to keep them separated. There are so many of you. Yet you stand behind the wall! Let's go! Time up is up on their permit, so Heimbach's group heads back to their cars. That's what you call a victory for us. They tried to shut our event down, and they were unable to. Freedom of speech won, baby. But both sides continue to provoke each other. You're class traitors. You're national traitors. Now, in the closing moments, the police chief fears he's losing control. Come and get it! (YELLING) You! So he calls in reinforcements ` state police in full riot gear. A nervous Heimbach pulls out his gun, even cocks it, just in case. When you've got a lot of people that want to kill you, (LAUGHS) you've got to work and do your best to not get killed, right? (LAUGHS) Today, police held the line. Crisis averted. But coming up ` CHANTING: Blood and soil! Blood and soil! CHANTING: Jews will not replace us! Heimbach, Spencer, MacAuley and Jenkins meet again in Charlottesville, Virginia, on a day with tragic consequences. The car just ploughed through hundreds of people. And is the Commander In Chief taking sides? You had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent. We'll be with both sides in Charlottesville when we 20/20 returns after this break. 1 Welcome back to 20/20 and tonight's look at the far-right groups that are on the rise in the United States. The small Virginia town of Charlottesville, where the statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee became the focal point for white nationalist groups. The protests and the counter protests ended in tragedy, and 20/20's cameras caught it all. Then the two lightning rods of the alt-right and Antifa come face-to-face. Here's Tom Llamas. This weather-beaten statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee sitting in a Charlottesville, Virginia, park, became a touchstone for racial hatred after city officials voted to take it down. CHANTING: Blood and soil! Blood and soil! Mobs of white nationalists vowed to defend the statue during that now infamous torch-lit rally on the University of Virginia campus. And then responding to a call from Richard Spencer, Matt Heimbach and other white nationalist leaders,... CHANTING: Blood and soil! ...a host of far-right groups descend on Charlottesville for a rally protesting the removal of that Lee statue. PROTESTERS: # This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. And once again, a wide-ranging group of counter-protesters, many of them peaceful, gather to confront the forces of intolerance head on. The reality is the majority of people who go out and protest against hate are not the Antifa. Still, Antifa does have a strong presence in Charlottesville. Lacy MacAuley is there marching,... The power that we have! ...armed with only her trusty bullhorn and a flag. And Daryle Lamont Jenkins is doxxing up a storm. Is this guy wearing a Hitler shirt? Yes, he is. I'm just gonna take a picture of him. But today Jenkins senses a different type of danger. There is some concern. There is some concern that things could go south really fast. He's concerned because lately things have taken a bloody turn. The left-wing shooting of a Republican congressman, and the fatal right-wing stabbings in Oregon, allegedly by an alt-right regular. The suspect pleaded not guilty, denouncing Antifa in court. Death to Antifa. What you will find is a consistent record of white supremacists not only engaging in public protests, which is their right, but how that hatred leads to violence. Now Jenkins is worried that lethal force will also erupt in Charlottesville. Gunshots, um, let's hope not. Let's hope not. I mean, I'm gonna be fair with you, I'm so concerned that I'm strapped up myself. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) At about 11am, Jenkins' nemesis, white nationalist leader Matt Heimbach, mobilises his men in this parking garage. They're battle ready, armed with shields, sticks. (RHYTHMIC BANGING) We're doing the Lord's work. What's there to be nervous about if you're doing the Lord's work? Heimbach's men take the streets,... Shields up! ...ready for the worst. Are you willing to die today? Of course. Of course. As Heimbach's group enters the park, clashes have already erupted between the white nationalists and counter protesters. (YELLING) Unlike in Pikeville, police are unable to keep the two sides apart, as a haze of tear gas fills the streets, all hell breaks lose as both sides, armed with weapons, collide. Three or four people started hitting me with some kind of sticks. Rocks, bottles full of urine, and other projectiles fly back and forth. And then this moment ` one counter protester even squares off with white nationalists using an improvised flame-thrower. Finally, local and state police move in using pepper spray to keep demonstrators at bay. If you do not disperse immediately, you will be arrested. Do not split up. They want us to get hurt. The white nationalist groups are forced to flee the scene, enraging Richard Spencer. This is a peaceful assembly, and this is what they're gonna do. It's an absolute outrage. We'll see 'em in court. But watch right here as a 'peaceful assembly' of white nationalists mercilessly beat a counter-protester. A little after noon, Heimbach and Spencer regroup at a nearby park, blaming the other side for the violence. It's some crazed attack. These people are on (BLEEP)ing drugs, whatever. I mean, they are (BLEEP)ing lunatics, and they are not worth getting stabbed over. And we also see an old poster boy of hate and intolerance ` former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. Just about an hour later, at 1.14pm, a surprise attack. The appalling scene that shocked the country. Police say an alleged white nationalist ploughs his grey Dodge Charger into a group of counter-protesters. The driver then reverses and accelerates, sending bodies flying all over the streets as he flees the scene. Hit, like, two or three other cars and pinned people in-between the cars, smashed into people. 19 were injured. 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed. Police identified the driver as 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr, who was caught by our ABC cameras before the attack, marching with a white nationalist group. Fields was charged with second-degree murder. When we asked Matt Heimbach about the alleged killer in the ranks, he tries to justify it. It's a man's right to defend himself against a mob that is actively cheering to kill you. You're not gonna disassociate yourself from him at all? Not at all. The aftermath of the brutal eruption of violence sparked by white nationalists. The repercussions from the event have dominated the news all week. And the President actually igniting an even bigger fire. I think there's blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it. But you also had people that were... very fine people on both sides. That's a failure to fundamental understand what the alt-right, what white supremacists are all about. That is dangerous. Indeed, even GOP leaders thought it was a presidential message of endorsement for white nationalists. Richard Spencer tweeting, 'I'm proud of him for speaking the truth.' But to the grieving mother of Heather Heyer, killed in that car attack, Trump's words equating her daughter with the KKK and white supremacists were deeply hurtful, announcing that she's refusing to even take the President's call. You can't wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying, 'I'm sorry.' Think before you speak. After months of documenting their fight for A Fractured America, we brought white nationalist Richard Spencer and Antifa member Lacy MacAuley together for an encounter which didn't involve police barricades or weapons. Hello. I'm Lacy MacAuley. Nice to meet you. I would prefer not to shake your hand. It doesn't start well. I could smell the Antifa activist from yards away. The foul stench of never bathing. MacAuley refuses to condemn that infamous punch Spencer took on Inauguration Day. But, Lacy, I gotta stop you there. A punch in the face is a punch in the face. Genocide is genocide. I'm sorry. But, like, I don't think anyone has sympathy for people who are actually actively advocating for policies of genocide. I'm not. You would like a white homeland, and to me, that says genocide. People are going to suffer. People are going to die. I have no respect for that mentality. I don't want anyone to die. Spencer blames Antifa for most of the violence between the groups, but also insists his people will defend themselves. We're never gonna win by unilaterally disarming ourselves. We're gonna win when they know that if they punch us, we're gonna punch them back so hard that they never knew what was coming. But isn't, excuse me for using the phrase, a BS argument? No. Because if the goal is an all-white homeland ` that is the goal ` how do you do that within the laws in the United States? This is a big ideal for the future. The Southern Poverty Law Center shows us the numbers. There's a rise in hate crimes. And they directly attribute the rise in hate crimes to you specifically. They mention you by name. What do you say to that? That's total (BLEEP). And the SPLC is total (BLEEP). What is a hate crime? If anyone on the alt-right instigated violence, I would disassociate myself with them totally. Have you, though? The Antifa is instigating violence constantly. And they aren't just instigating violence against me. They're instigating violence against random people in Trump hats. When they attack your right, you fight back. A speech is not violence. And violence is not speech. But words are powerful. Words can change the world. A word is not a bullet. While Spencer yearns for a white homeland, MacAuley dreams of an anarchist utopia. You wanna deconstruct government. I would like to actually bring power back to the people. We need to bring power back into our communities and neighbourhoods. Good luck. Not if we have any last little breath. You're not gonna stop us, because you don't matter. Yes. Yes. Ultimately people like me give meaning to your life. We will stop you. What? Guess what. You care a lot about me. I wouldn't care about you` I am your life, actually. You wouldn't have a life without me. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. That is absolutely true. No, actually, I'm sorry, but guess what ` newsflash ` I do a lot of work actually. That's your entire existence. You're a little, small part of this. And with that, the two agree to remain best of enemies. And perhaps it is true that in some strange way they need each other. But back in Charlottesville, where a young woman died in the streets, a show of unity. A reminder that most political demonstrators are non-violent, and glimmers of hope that maybe we can find a way out. (POIGNANT MUSIC) And as the debate over the removal of Confederate statues still rages, James Fields, the man accused of murdering Heather Heyer by deliberately driving into a crowd in Charlottesville, is still awaiting trial. Well, that's our show for tonight. Thank you for joining us. Kia ora. Nga mihi. Captions by Ingrid Lauder.