Jason Kessler, the white nationalist blogger who organized the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this month, has been ejected from a local Republican grassroots organization, according to its chairman.
Mr. Kessler joined the Greene County Republican Committee earlier this year but was given the boot after his far-right demonstration in downtown Charlottesville descended into chaos Aug. 12 and ended in the death of a counterprotester, the city’s Daily Progress first reported Wednesday.
Committee members had initiated the process of punting Mr. Kessler prior to his now-infamous “Unite the Right” rally and had successfully removed him as of Aug. 18, its chairman, Ed Yensho, told the newspaper.
Mr. Kessler applied to become an associate member of the Greene County Republican Committee at its March 2017 meeting, claiming that he had been driven away from the Democratic Party because of its “exaggerated focus on transgender rights, illegal immigration and the assault on private property rights,” according to meeting minutes cited by the Daily Progress.
After his deadly “Unite the Right” rally, however, Mr. Yensho published a statement on the committee’s Facebook page last week quietly distancing itself from Mr. Kessler, Daily Progress reported.
“We have always invited any who agree with our principles and support our candidates to join our committee. Jason Kessler took advantage of that invitation and joined our committee earlier this year,” his statement said. “Because of his role in the so-called Unite the Right Rally, which neither fostered unity, nor represented the political right as we know it, members of the Committee began the required steps in our bylaws to remove him from membership based on his obvious disagreement with our core principles. Upon learning of the removal effort, Mr. Kessler resigned his membership.”
Mr. Kessler did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday and has previously ignored multiple messages sent concerning his “Unite the Right” rally and his activities afterwards.
Mr. Kessler billed his event as a free speech demonstration held to protest Charlottesville’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, but it quickly turned chaotic when participants including neo-Nazis and white supremacists violently clashed with counterprotesters before the rally ever officially began. Dozens of people were ultimately injured, and a woman was killed when a person identified as a “Unite the Right” attendee drove his automobile into a crowd of counterprotesters.
Mr. Kessler made waves again over the weekend when his Twitter account posted several insulting messages targeting the slain protester, Heather Heyer, before abruptly going dark. He reactivated his Twitter account earlier this week, and Thursday morning he tweeted that he was pursuing a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Charlottesville.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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