House sends resolution urging Trump to condemn white supremacists

The House unanimously cleared a resolution on Tuesday that condemns white supremacists and urges President Trump to speak out against them.

The bipartisan resolution now heads to President Trump’s desk for his signature, making it the first formal response by Congress to the violence that broke out during a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., last month.

“Tonight the House passed my resolution condemning hate groups & the Charlottesville attack. POTUS should sign a clear message & sign it ASAP,” tweeted Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), one of those who introduced the resolution.

Tonight the House passed my resolution condemning hate groups & the Charlottesville attack. POTUS should send a clear message & sign it ASAP

— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) September 12, 2017

The resolution formally condemns “the racist violence and domestic terrorist attack” in Charlottesville, where a car suspected of being driven by a white supremacist sympathizer rammed into a crowd of counterprotesters. Heather Heyer, 32, died and at least 19 others were injured.

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The gathering of white supremacists began as a rally to protest the Charlottesville City Council’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The resolution further “rejects white nationalism, white supremacy, and neo-Nazism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States.”

Following concern from lawmakers of both parties about Trump’s equivocating response to the violence, the resolution urges Trump and his administration to speak out against white supremacist groups and “use all resources available” to improve data collection of hate crimes and “address the growing prevalence of those hate groups in the United States.”

Trump initially blamed the violence in Charlottesville on “many sides,” leading to condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans. He then issued a statement from the White House declaring that “racism is evil” and called out the KKK, neo-Nazis and other hate groups. But a day later, Trump defended his original remarks and said there were “some very fine people on both sides.”

Warner, along with Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) introduced the resolution last week, which cleared both chambers of Congress in the past 24 hours.