Barack Obama's tweet condemning racism following the violent far-right rally in Charlottesville (opens in new tab), Virginia, has become the most-liked in Twitter history.
In the aftermath of the deadly attack on Saturday, the former president responded (opens in new tab) with a quote from Nelson Mandela. It read: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion."
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAmAugust 13, 2017
So far, the sentiment has been liked more than 3 million times, passing the 2.7 million for singer Ariana Grande's tweet in the wake of the bombing of Manchester Arena in May. Twitter has confirmed Obama's poignant message is also the fifth most re-tweeted post of all time.
Obama continued to call for peace in two more tweets which referenced the late South African leader. "People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite," he wrote. Each post has received over one million likes and hundreds of thousands of re-tweets.
"...For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Nelson MandelaAugust 13, 2017
James Alex Fields Jr., 20, was arrested after driving a car into a group of counter-protesters (opens in new tab), which caused the death of a 32-year-old woman and left dozens injured. He's since been charged with second-degree murder. And two more people (opens in new tab) have been declared dead after a helicopter monitoring the rally crashed.
President Trump (opens in new tab) came under fire for his initial reaction to the clash between white nationalists and anti-racist protesters, which blamed "many sides" for the violence. On Tuesday, he once again blamed "both sides" (opens in new tab) during a press conference at Trump Tower.
"You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent," he said. "Nobody wants to say that but I'll say it."
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