Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio on Tuesday reprimanded President Trump for equating the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville and the protesters who took to the streets of the Virginia college town for a counter demonstration.
Stivers is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign arm, and is expected to work with the White House to help protect Republican incumbents and grow the party’s House majority next year. Stivers is also from Ohio, where Trump’s political base is strong, making his pointed criticism of the president all the more remarkable.
“I don’t understand what’s so hard about this. White supremacists and neo-Nazis are evil and shouldn’t be defended,” Stivers said in a prepared statement.
Stivers could be concerned about offering political cover to House Republicans who could be vulnerable in 2018. The Republicans are defending 23 seats won by Democrat Hillary Clinton last November; they hold a 24-seat majority.
