The President

Lawmakers Are Criticizing Trump's Response To Violence In Virginia

Democrats and Republicans criticized President Trump for not calling out white nationalists.

Lawmakers Are Criticizing Trump's Response To Violence In Virginia
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Article by Ryan Biek
SMS
August 13, 2017

President Donald Trump is facing criticism from both sides of the aisle for his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On Saturday, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the "alt-right" gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue.

Counterprotesters were also present, and the two groups clashed. A car ran into a group of counterprotesters, killing at least one person.

Two Virginia State Police officers who were responding to the violence were also killed when their helicopter crashed outside the city.

And at least one of Trump's comments about the violence is getting a lot of criticism.

Trump said, "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides."

Democrats and Republicans criticized Trump for not calling out white nationalists by name as one of the sides he condemned.

Sen. Orrin Hatch — the most senior Republican senator — tweeted, "My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home."

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Trump also faced some pushback after he didn't identify the car attack as an act of terrorism. Trump has shown no hesitation about labeling past international attacks as terrorism while in office.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted it's "Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists."

Fellow Republican Sen. Tim Scott echoed that statement. He tweeted, "Domestic terror in #Charlottesville must be condemned by every.single.one.of.us . Otherwise hate is simply emboldened."

Democrats were united in condemning the attack. Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez tweeted, "America is no place for bigots. And to be silent in the face of their hatred is to condone it."

According to The New York Times, the White House responded to the criticism by saying that the president "condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, K.K.K. neo-Nazi and all extremist groups."