Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned President Trump on Wednesday that his “words are dividing Americans, not healing them” in the wake of the bloody clashes in Virginia that has sparked a national conversation about white supremacists and race.
Mr. Graham also vowed that Republicans will “fight back against the idea that the party of Lincoln has a welcome mat out for the David Dukes of the world.”
“Through his statements yesterday, President Trump took a step backward by again suggesting there is moral equivalency between the white supremacist neo-Nazis and KKK members who attended the Charlottesville rally and people like Ms. [Heather] Heyer,” Mr. Graham said, alluding to the 32-year-old who died after a man drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters. “I, along with many others, do not endorse this moral equivalency.”
Mr. Trump has said that there is a lot of blame to go around following the violent clashes in Charlottesville, drawing blowback from Republicans and Democrats.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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