Donald Trump's Republican Party has condemned white supremacists, within days of the president coming fire for his equivocating response to racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“T he racist beliefs of Nazis, the KKK, white suprema cists and other like-minded groups are completely inconsistent with the Republican Party’s platform”, a resolution passed by its national committee stated.
It came after Mr Trump failed to condemn white supremacists in his initial response to the violence in Charlottesville, which left one woman dead.
The US leader was criticised after he blamed the violence on "many sides".
After a backlash against his initial comments, Mr Trump issued a statement denouncing racism as evil, only to revert back to defending the far-right protesters at the Virginia rally and blame the violence equally on what he called the “alt-left”.
While the Republican National Committee (RNC) resolution denouncing hate groups was unanimously approved, some members complained it was unnecessary.
“It's amazing that we have been lured into this argument that we're not racists. It's absurd,” said Colorado Republican Chairman Jeff Hays. “Why would we feel compelled to do that?”
Virginia committeeman Morton Blackwell told The Atlantic the measure was only needed because of a response being “pushed vigorously” by the press.
He added: “I was concerned about [the resolution] because I did not want it to appear that in attacking the white supremacists that we were somehow approving the violence that was generated by people on the left."
But some RNC leaders, concerned about the party's image in light of the Presidents latest statements, were vocal in their support of the measure
“Every day, I wake up proud that we're the party of Lincoln,” Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told the committee. “Condemning violence is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is an American issue.”
The resolution says the Republican Party is “unified in revulsion at the abhorrent white supremacists demonstration in Charlottesville.”
But Democrats claimed the wording of the resolution echoed Mr Trump’s evasive language because it denounced both white supremacists “and counterprotesters engaged in acts of violence”.
