White Supremacists, Neo Nazis, KKK Have ‘No Home’ In GOP: Chairwoman

DETROIT, MI — National Republican Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel Monday denounced white supremacists and said they have no place in the Republican Party following deadly violence at a weekend rally and counter-protests over the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. McDaniel made her remarks in Detroit before a roundtable discussion with business, religious and community leaders.

Daniels’ condemnation of white nationalism came after critics said President Donald Trump was too tepid in his response to the violence that left one counter- protester dead. Two state police officers who were monitoring the demonstrations from the air were also killed when their helicopter crashed.

“White supremacists and neo-Nazis and KKK have no home or place in the Republican Party,” said McDaniel, formerly the Michigan Republican Party chairwoman. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, and click here to find your local Michigan Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

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“Not only do we denounce their activity, we will speak out against it, and conversations like we are going to have today is a way that we can start healing and moving forward. And that is what we are committed to,” McDaniel said, according to a report in The Detroit News.

“This office symbolizes to me the conversation we need to have across this country as to how do we break down these walls of racism and bigotry that clearly still exist,” she said. “By being a Republican office in Detroit for four years that never shuts its doors, we are committed to continuing to fight for ways that we can move beyond our hateful past and create a brighter future of unity across the country.”

“Racism is evil,” the president said Monday. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

Trump tapped Daniels to lead the national GOP after his 2016 election win in Michigan, the first by a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

Cody Fenwick (Patch National Staff) contributed to this report.

(AP Photo/Christopher Hermann, File)