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Charlottesville Confederate Statue Vandalized

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - A Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, that became a rallying point for white nationalists has been vandalized with an expletive against President Donald Trump.

TV station WVIR reported graffiti was discovered on the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee early Wednesday. A photo showed a profanity directed at Trump on the statue's base.

A Charlottesville police spokesman said the city's Parks and Recreation department would clean it up.

Hundreds of white nationalists flocked to Charlottesville in August 2017 to protest the city's plan to remove the statue. Hundreds of others showed up to protest the racists and the event descended into violence. One woman was killed and dozens more were injured when a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd.

A lawsuit over the statue-removal plan is ongoing.

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.