Senators to introduce resolution condemning white supremacist groups

A bipartisan group of senators will introduce a resolution Wednesday condemning white supremacist groups and calling on President Trump to confront threats from hate groups in the wake of violence last month in Charlottesville, Va.

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) will introduce the resolution, which has the backing of the Anti-Defamation League, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The resolution condemns hate groups, including white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, while calling on Trump and the administration to “speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and White supremacy.”

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The resolution also calls on Trump to utilize resources to “address the growing prevalence” of hate groups in the United States while specifically labeling the car attack at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville last month a “domestic terrorist attack.”

It also acknowledges Heather Heyer, the woman who died when a suspect drove his car into counterprotesters at the Charlottesville rally, as well as the two Virginia State Police officers killed in a helicopter crash while they were aiding officials.

Trump has received bipartisan criticism for his response to the violence at the rally, which was meant to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

While the president initially condemned the violence in Charlottesville, on two separate occasions he blamed “many sides” and “both sides” for the violence.