In the News

Mark Moore

Congress passed a resolution calling on President Trump to condemn hate groups after he blamed the deadly violence at a Virginia rally of white nationalist groups “on many sides.”

“Tonight, the House of Representatives spoke in one unified voice to unequivocally condemn the shameful and hate-filled acts of violence carried out by the KKK (Ku Klux Klan), white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a statement.

The House approved the resolution late Tuesday, a day after the Senate OK’d the legislation. It will now be sent to Trump for his signature.

The resolution calls on the president to “speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and White supremacy .”

It also calls for the Department of Justice to “investigate thoroughly all acts of violence, intimidation, and domestic terrorism by White supremacists, White nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and associated groups.”

Trump was roundly criticized in August for his comments about a rally of white supremacists groups in Charlottesville, Va., where a neo-Nazi sympathizer drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 people.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Trump commented from his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J. , the afternoon of the rally.

The congressional resolution also calls Heyer’s death a “domestic terrorist attack.”

It also acknowledges the death of two Virginia State Police officers who were killed when the helicopter they were using to monitor the protest crashed.

The White House has not commented on the resolution.

http://nypost.com/2017/09/13/congress-officially-calls-for-trump-to-condemn-hate-groups/