It has been more than a week since Donald Trump’s racially charged response to Charlottesville, and rather than standing up, speaking truth to power, and calling out a president who has repeatedly defended white supremacists, Senate GOP President Len Fasano has only tried to score political points by attacking Democrats and hoped this issue would blow over.

Yet in the past day alone:

• An African-American business owner in New Milford had his storefront vandalized with a racial slur and swastika.
• A man arrested for DUI in East Lyme yelled a Nazi epithet at police officers.

Any politician claiming this is a distraction is only underscoring their ignorance about the meaning of leadership, and demonstrating a moral bankruptcy.

We see evidence of hate crimes even here in Connecticut, and racists are emboldened by a president who enables their hateful ideologies. The refusal of GOP leaders like Len Fasano not only to condemn hate and bigotry, but to call out – by name – those who enable it, is nothing short of complicity.

Hartford Courant: Fasano’s Failure

On Thursday, Senate Republican President Len Fasano released a statement that can only be described as a complete meltdown. Among other points, he attempted, ham-handedly, to shift blame to Democrats for political divisions in the wake of the events in Charlottesville.

I have a few issues with that. First, he doesn’t say a word about President Trump’s defense of neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Nothing. As The Courant and many others have noted, silence and refusal to stand up to Trump from elected leaders on either side of the aisle equal complicity.