Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick of the 66th Assembly District in Manhattan responded to the events last week in Charlottesville, and the President's response.

"Like most Americans, I was horrified and outraged by this past weekend's demonstration by neo-Nazis, the KKK, white nationalists and supremacists, and armed militia openly carrying military-style weapons that ended in violence and a terrorist attack in Charlottesville.

In moments like these, it is the role of the President to condemn hatred and guide the country as we mourn. Instead, the President has responded by creating a false equivalency between the actions of those who would fight hate and the actions of those who have openly called for the extermination of people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, and ability.

Given the damage this administration has already done to civil rights, the environment, and the body politic, his words and actions may not be surprising, but they are certainly appalling. Equally appalling are those who would condemn President Trump's outrageous moral equivalence without denouncing the President himself. In refusing to mention the murder of Heather Heyer, the numerous other injuries caused, or condemn the domestic terrorist who committed these acts by name in the days following the attack, the President has signaled to hate groups that they have his support. His language, which hearkens back to such disgraceful periods in history as slavery and the Jim Crow era or 1930s Nazi Germany, reveals again what many have known for years: the President is a bigot and a racist, as evidenced by his leadership of the birther movement and countless other actions, and to continue to support him at this point is to place oneself squarely on the wrong side of history.

The President has offered clear evidence that he has no ability to lead our diverse nation, and must resign."