US congress resolution calls on Trump to denounce hate
The United States congress passed a resolution calling on Donald Trump to condemn hate groups after he was criticised for his response to the fatal violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last month.
The resolution calls on the US president to condemn hate groups and what it describes as the growing prevalence of extremists who support anti-Semitism, xenophobia and white supremacy.
It also urges the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to investigate acts of violence and intimidation by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups.
The US house of representatives unanimously adopted the resolution on Tuesday. The senate – the upper chamber of the US congress – approved the measure on Monday.
“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,” said Gerry Connolly, a Democrat representative.
The resolution, passed with Republic and Democrat support, will go to Mr Trump for his signature. The White House has yet to comment.
Mr Trump alienated fellow Republicans, corporate leaders and US allies and rattled the markets last month with comments about the violence in Charlottesville, where white nationalists and neo-Nazis clashed with anti-racism activists on August 12. One woman, Heather Heyer, was killed and several people were injured.
Trump’s failure to condemn white nationalists specifically rattled the markets and alienated US allies
The congressional resolution calls Heyer’s death a “domestic terrorist attack”.
On the day of Heyer’s death, Mr Trump denounced hatred and violence “on many sides”, a comment that drew appalled reactions from across the political spectrum because it did not condemn white nationalists specifically.
Rioting broke out after white nationalists gathered to oppose the planned removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, who led the army of the pro-slavery Confederacy during the American Civil War.