GOP senator: Nazis should ‘go back to their hole’

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) on Tuesday called on white supremacists who held a rally in Charlottesville, Va., to “go back to their hole.”

“I think it’s about time asses with Nazi flags go back to their hole,” Gardner said at a town hall, according to The Denver Post.

Gardner made a similar comment at a second town hall later that day, saying, “Those assholes can go back to their cave, we don’t want them in this country.”

Gardner said that he responded quickly to President Trump’s comments on Charlottesville “because we can’t let … people think that somebody who believes in KKK or white supremacy is part of any base.”

{mosads}His answer was in response to a question about Trump’s decision to cut funding to groups that combat right-wing violence.

Gardner, one of the first GOP lawmakers to condemn the white supremacist rally, repeatedly called on President Trump to denounce the hate groups behind the rally.

He tweeted Saturday that Trump should “call evil by its name,” adding, “These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”

And Sunday, Gardner said that white supremacists can’t be part of any group’s political base.

Trump drew massive backlash for initially refusing to single out white supremacists in his condemnation of the violence at the rally, which lead to the death of one counter-protester, instead blaming “many sides.”

Trump later denounced the hate groups in a statement Monday, but lawmakers hit him for taking too long to make the comments. Four business leaders have since resigned from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council over his response to the Charlottesville rally.

— Jordain Carney contributed to this report which was updated at 4:15 p.m.