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U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) is renewing his call for congressional Republicans to allow a vote on a resolution honoring three men stabbed May 26 on a Portland MAX train by a white supremacist.
That resolution has been stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives for two months.
In a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Aug. 14, Blumenauer says the symbolic gesture is newly urgent in the wake of hate attacks last weekend in Charlottesville, Va.
"When the U.S. House of Representatives reconvenes, I ask that we, as a body, make clear that we stand in solidarity against white supremacy, hate and intolerance," Blumenauer writes. "Part of this stand should be formally thanking three brave Oregonians who were stabbed while protecting two young women who were the targets of threatening anti-Muslim hate speech in May."
Earlier today, President Donald Trump unleashed an astonishing screed against reporters who asked him about his difficulty denouncing white supremacists who marched and assaulted people in Charlottesvile. He equated the neo-Nazi marchers with their antifascist foes.
"You had a group on one side that was bad," Trump said. "You had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say that. I'll say it right now."
Many Congressional Republicans were quick to condemn the president's remarks.
Yet since July 7, when the full, bipartisan Oregon congressional delegation asked for a symbolic resolution to honor the MAX stabbing victims, McCarthy and Republican leadership have remained silent.
The accused murderer in the Portland killings, Jeremy Christian, is a white supremacist who latched onto right-wing extremists in Portland, and appeared obsessed with a violent showdown with antifa protesters.
On May 26, Christian harassed two black teenage girls, one of them wearing a hijab. The men intervened to stop Christian's hateful rant; Christian pulled out a knife and stabbed them in the necks. Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche were killed in the attack; and Micah David-Cole Fletcher survived.
In this week's letter, Blumenauer asks Republicans on Capitol Hill to overcome partisan differences and honor the victims of violence.
"We won't let hate win," he writes. "In the wake of Charlottesville and Portland, let's make our nation's values clear."