During the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally on August 11-12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, hundreds of counter-protestors clashed with white nationalists, resulting in dozens of injuries and one fatality. Months later, the timeline and events of the day, as well as the response by Charlottesville police, are under scrutiny.

 

 

Signer previously served as counsel to Governor Mark Warner of Virginia, as national security director of the 2008 John Edwards for President campaign, and as senior policy advisor at the Center for American Progress. He was a 2009 candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia. He served on the board of directors of the Center for National Policy and as a principal of the Truman National Security Project. Signer was appointed by Governor Tim Kaine to Virginia's Board of Medicine and by Governor Terry McAuliffe to the Council on Virginia's Future. He is a member of the Virginia and Washington, D.C. bars.

 

Signer is the author of “Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies” (2009) and “Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father” (2015). His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, TIME, The Washington Post, Vox, The New Republic, Democracy, and USA Today, and he has been interviewed on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, The Situation Room, CBS Nightly News, and NPR's Morning Edition. He has been profiled by CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian. He recently was named an Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow.

 

In addition to serving as mayor, Signer currently is a lecturer at the University of Virginia and the general counsel of a major Charlottesville-based technology firm. This event is co-sponsored by Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life.