Charlottesville: Jason Kessler's Account Tweets Heather Heyer Insult

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Counter protesters (L) confront Jason Kessler (C), an organizer of 'Unite the Right' rally, after Kessler tried to speak outside the Charlottesville City Hall on August 13, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Getty

Members of the alt-right have distanced themselves from a tweet from the account of Jason Kessler, the activist behind Saturday's white natonalist rally in Charlottesville, that insulted activist Heather Heyer, who was mown down when a car drove into anti-fascist counter-protesters last weekend.

"Heather Heyer was a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time," read the tweet from the account of the blogger.

The tweet contains a link to an article on neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, which has resurfaced under a different domain after being booted from GoDaddy and Google.

The link leads to an article on the site viciously insulting Heyer, which led to its eviction from the domains.

A social media post by hacker and Daily Stormer staffer Andrew Auernheimer claimed responsibility for hacking Kessler's twitter account, the LA Times reported.

Newsweek was unable to verify the claim. Kessler has not responded to the allegation, or criticism of the tweet. An error message showed when Newsweek attempted to access Kessler's website.

Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed after being hit by a car driven into a crowd of anti-racism protesters at Saturday's 'Unite the Right' white nationalist protest. Kessler was chased away by hecklers when he attempted to deliver a public statement in Charlottesville the day after Heyer's death.

I asked Jason Kessler if he bears any responsibility for the death in #Charlotteville yesterday pic.twitter.com/QIA9jiuczS

— Brook Silva-Braga (@Brook) August 13, 2017

As he was being led away by police he told a journalist "I disavow any political violence and what happened yesterday was tragic.

"The denial of First Amendment rights led to the political violence we saw yesterday."

Earlier, Snopes reported that the alt-right was turning on Kessler, with conspiracy theorists posting on messaging boards claims he is a "deep state" plant whose purpose was to discredit the movement.

The tweet prompted key members of the alt-right who had been scheduled to speak at the rally to distance themselves from Kessler.

"I will no longer associate w/ Jason Kessler; no one should. Heyer's death was deeply saddening," tweeted alt-right provocateur Richard Spencer. "Payback" is a morally reprehensible idea."

Tim Gionet, aka Baked Alaska, a rapper turned alt-right troll, also criticised the tweet.

"This is terribly wrong and vile. We should not rejoice at the people who died in Charlottesville just because we disagree with them."

He added, "There is no place on the right for people who are advocating violence & spewing actual racial hatred. This is not who we are."

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