Washington, DC – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Committees on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committee and Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, released the following statement today in response to the President’s repudiation of the remarks he read on Monday regarding the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and re-embrace of the statements he made Saturday in which he apportioned equal blame for the violence and loss of life in Charlottesville between the neo-Nazis and White Supremacists and the persons who were there to protest their ideology of hate:

“The remarks of the President today will live in infamy and will shame for all eternity his tenure in office, however long or short that may be. Never before in history has a President of the United States, the nation that led the alliance that defeated Nazism and fascism in the greatest conflict in world history, ever publicly defended or tried to normalize neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, or White Supremacists. That long and unbroken precedent ended today with the President’s obscene and shameful attempt to draw a moral equivalence between the neo-Nazis and bigots who descended upon the quiet, peaceful town of Charlottesville with their hateful ideology on the one hand, and anti-racist protestors on the other.

“One group advocated hate, division, and racial superiority; the other affirmed racial unity and the equality of all persons ordained by the Creator. One group idolizes the most evil war criminal in human history; the other shares and is committed to making real the dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One group was animated by the forces of darkness and hate; the other inspired by the light of reason and love. The difference between these two opposing ideas and ideals is so clear, so stark and vivid, that it could only go unrecognized by the morally blind, which Donald Trump has revealed himself to be.

“At Gettysburg, President Lincoln said ‘the world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it will never forget what they did here.’ Nor will we ever forget what happened in Charlottesville, the home of my law school alma mater, on Saturday, August 12, 2017. And we will always remember Heather Heyer, a true patriot who was murdered standing up for what is right by a domestic terrorist who rejects the American way of life.

My thoughts and prayers are also with the families and loved ones of all of those injured by that act of domestic terrorism and those of Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of the Virginia State Police who were assisting public safety efforts when their helicopter crashed, killing them both. I especially wish a full and speedy recovery to Natalie Romero who was seriously injured in the crash that took Ms. Heyer’s life. Ms. Romero is an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia and a graduate of Bellaire High School (the same high school attended by son and daughter).

“Our magnificent Constitution guarantees and protects the right of neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, white nationalists, and other like-minded groups to peaceably assemble and advocate their white supremacy and separatist beliefs. But that same Constitution provides an equal right to those who wish to protest their hateful ideology. That the Constitution protects the right to demonstrate in both cases does not mean that the causes espoused by both groups are equally meritorious. As every president from Franklin Roosevelt through Barack Obama clearly understood and affirmed, they are not. Civil action in support of equality and justice is worthy of commendation. Civil action in support of a white supremacist ideology is worthy only of condemnation. If the President cannot recognize this difference, it is time for a different president.