McMorris Rodgers complicit

Since Cathy McMorris Rodgers has failed to specifically condemn Donald Trump’s racist language, policies and actions, she is complicit in the Charlottesville violence, including the unimaginable, the Nazi killing of an American citizen on U.S. soil. Rodgers can’t have it both ways. She can’t continue to denounce hate and racism (through her surrogates) without denouncing the rhetoric of her party leader.

Prior to his election, Trump claimed a federal judge could not be fair “because he’s a Mexican,” had been sued and fined for discriminating against black employees and tenants, accepted support from white nationalist groups during his campaign, called Mexican immigrants “criminals and rapists” and insisted Barack Obama’s presidency was illegitimate because he’s an African.

Since his election to office, Trump has appointed notorious racists to his cabinet, including Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions, the latter of which has escalated the racist drug war, reinstated minimum sentencing and vowed to start suing universities for practicing affirmative action. During the first days following his “election,” there were nearly a thousand hate crimes across the nation, including some here in our own community.

We don’t need McMorris Rodgers’ indirect renunciations of hate. We need her to publicly condemn her boss.

Todd F. Eklof, Reverend, Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane

Spokane