 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellDem lawmaker resurfaces 2013 Trump tweet criticizing Obama for Syrian airstrikes Schumer says Trump strikes 'appropriate,' warns against greater involvement in Syria Trump authorizes military strikes in Syria MORE (R-Ky.) pushed back Wednesday on President Trump's latest comments about the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying there "are no good neo-Nazis." "The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-Nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington," the Republican senator from Kentucky said in a statement. Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America," McConnell said in his statement.
– "There are no good neo-Nazis," Sen. Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. “We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred," the Hill quotes the Senate majority leader as saying. "Those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms." McConnell went on to say that all Americans "have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head" and made it clear that the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and KKK members behind the violence in Charlottesville are not welcome in his state of Kentucky or America. The groups behind the Unite the Right rally last weekend in Virginia had been planning an event in Lexington. USA Today notes McConnell failed to mention President Trump by name in his apparent condemnation of the president's comments on Charlottesville. It's possible McConnell—whose wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, was standing next to Trump during the president's Tuesday press conference—was attempting to avoid antagonizing Trump supporters, according to the Los Angeles Times. But a source close to McConnell tells CNN the senator—while privately upset about Trump's comments—didn't want to directly criticize the president because it might look like payback for Trump blasting him last week on the failure of health care. McConnell also still needs to work with Trump next month on a deal to fund the government.