It came as a memorial was held in the Virginian city of Charlottesville for Heather Heyer, the 32 year-old woman killed when a man suspected of being a white nationalist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters last weekend.
At the memorial, Heather Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, urged forgiveness, saying her daughter's death would serve to fight injustice.
"I think the reason that what happened to Heather has struck a chord is because we know that what she did is achievable. We don't all have to die. We don't all have to sacrifice our lives. They tried to kill my child to shut her up, well guess what? You just magnified her."
The Democrat Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, called for unity.
"Our nation is a nation of immigrants. It is that great mosaic tile that has made us the great United States of America and as we go forward from this memorial service, let Heather Heyer be an inspiration to all of us to do good, to put your hand out, to help one another."
President Donald Trump has been criticised by Democrats and Republicans: firstly, for his slowness to denounce the white nationalists at the centre of the protests and violence in Charlottesville, then for saying the anti-racism protestors were equally to blame.
While some Republicans have voiced their condemnation of the movements towards white nationalism, now for the first time two former presidents have added their voices to the mounting criticism.
George HW Bush and his son, George W Bush, issued a veiled rebuke of the current occupant of the White House.
In a joint statement they said, "America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms".
Meanwhile, Confederate monuments have been removed overnight in Baltimore, Maryland, and other US cities as a campaign to erase symbols of the pro-slavery Civil War South gathers momentum across the United States.
Catherine Pugh, the Mayor of Baltimore, explained her decision to quickly and quietly remove them.
"The city charter says if the Mayor wants to protect, or feels she needs to protect, the public and keep her community safe, she has the right to keep her community safe. And I felt that the best way to remove the monuments was to remove them overnight."
Amidst the fallout from the mounting anger at the Trump presidency over the issue, Donald Trump has ended two of his advisory panels after prominent members quit.
He's tweeted that he's winding up both the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy and Policy Forum, so as not to put pressure on the businesspeople who made up those panels.
Earlier, the CEOs of Campbell Soup and 3M resigned from the manufacturing council, and other business leaders faced pressure to take more dramatic action.
Vice President Mike Pence is standing by Mr Trump, and is calling for unity.
"What happened in Charlottesville was a tragedy and the President has been clear on this tragedy and so have I. In America we will not allow the few to divide the many. The strength of the United States of America is always strongest, as the President has always said so eloquently, when we are united around our shared values and so it will always be."
Abroad, British Prime Minister Theresa May has said there is no equivalence between fascists and white nationalists and those who protest to oppose them.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says racism has to be stood up to, every time.
But perhaps one of the strongest public comments came from Tim Kaine, the Democrat Senator from Virginia.
He spoke after the memorial service in Charlottesville for Heather Heyer.
"There is an absence of moral leadership in the Oval Office right now. This is the kind of moment where the nation needs a leader, somebody who can call upon on our better angels to bring us together, that is absent from the White House now."
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