Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rebuked the white nationalist groups who protested in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday and said their messages of “hatred and bigotry” shouldn’t be “welcome anywhere in America.”
“The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-Nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington,” McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement. “Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America.”
McConnell also took a subtle jab at comments from President Trump on Tuesday, when the president said there were “fine people” on both sides protesting in Charlottesville.
“You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides,” Trump told reporters during an impromptu press conference at Trump Tower in New York City.
McConnell, though, stressed there are “no good neo-Nazis.”
“We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred,” the majority leader said. “There are no good neo-Nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head.”
White nationalists are planning a rally in Lexington to protest the removal and relocation of two Confederate statues from the former Fayette County Courthouse, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported Tuesday.
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray announced plans to move the statues on Saturday after white nationalist groups clashed with counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville.
Neo-Nazis and white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
