About two-dozen demonstrators held signs and delivered speeches Tuesday outside the Louisville office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demanding that McConnell hold President Donald Trump accountable for comments he made following this month’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Louisville protest was organized by Melissa Byrne of the group UltraViolet. According to its Facebook page, the group “works on a range of issues, including health care, economic security, violence, and reproductive rights.”
“Mitch McConnell refuses to call for Trump’s impeachment, resignation or censure after his comments equivocating and supporting the white supremacists in Charlottesville,” Byrne said.
At a news conference following the Charlottesville rally, Trump said that “both sides” were to blame for violence that erupted at the rally and that there were some “very fine people” among those marching to protect Confederate statues.
Byrne said McConnell needs to do more to hold Trump accountable for his remarks.
“It’s actually beyond vocal,” she said. “It’s easy to put out a tweet or a statement. He needs to back up his words with action.”
When asked for a response, McConnell’s office on Tuesday pointed to comments the senator has made condemning the “hate and bigotry witnessed in Charlottesville” and his statement that there are “no good neo-Nazis.”
“We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred,” McConnell said in a statement last week. “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.”
