Many people were displeased with President Donald Trump’s response to the Charlottesville rally.
The president blamed the "alt-left" for the day's violence, and said, “I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either.”
Further statements have done little to please the president's critics. After his Charlottesville comments, the president, who once called himself "the least racist person," called monuments built to honor key figures of the Confederate States of America "beautiful." He also called the removal of these monuments "sad."
As ESPN condemns on of its stars for calling President Trump a white supremacist, Congress has decided to make the president legally state that he does not endorse white supremacy.
Politico reports that this week, Congress has joined together in a rare bipartisan push to pass legislation that formally condemns white supremacists and that enforces an official fight against neo-Nazi and racist domestic terrorism.
Congress has passed resolutions to issue statements on social issues before. This, however, is not a resolution, but legislation, meaning that the president either has to sign this bill into law, or veto it.
Senate members quickly passed the legislation and the House voted to pass the bill soon after.
The legislation calls for Trump to "speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy.”
According to the bill, these groups include: the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and white nationalist groups, among others.
The legislation also mandates that the administration "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."
And, the bill takes things one step further, specifically forcing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate violent acts or domestic terrorism caused by white supremacists.
The White House has not yet released an official comment on whether the president will sign or veto this new measure.
