The Senate on Monday night unanimously passed a resolution condemning white nationalists, white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, and neo-Nazis, calling on the Trump administration—namely Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Homeland Security—to investigate “all acts of violence, intimidation, and domestic terrorism by White supremacists, White nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and associated groups.”
The resolution is seen as backlash from President Trump’s ambiguous response to the violence in Charlottesville last August, in which a 32-year-old woman who was killed by a neo-Nazi who drove into a crowd of demonstrators. Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence, and later suggested there were many nice people on both sides, including white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
In response, the resolution urges “the President and his administration to speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and White supremacy; and use all resources available to the President and the President’s Cabinet to address the growing prevalence of those hate groups in the United States.”
The resolution was introduced by Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-VA, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, Sen. Cory Gardner, R-CO, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK.