If you want to call yourself a leader, you need to take some responsibility for the party you claim to lead, and Sen. Fasano has abdicated that role.

We thought Sam Belsito was finished after his tortured defense of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but his response - blaming the media and refusing to acknowledge that he was wrong - has been inadequate to say the least. But the real question here is where legislative leaders stand.

It shows a real lack of judgment that Governor Sununu would associate himself with someone who defended the violent racists behind these events. We would expect that he urges the Connecticut Republican Party to address their equivocation on the matter before he comes to Connecticut to raise money for their efforts to double down on their support of Donald Trump.

There is no comparison between peaceful protesters seeking racial justice and violent, murderous racists.

Justice, diversity and inclusion are central to the state of Connecticut, and Democrats will fight every day to preserve and protect those values. Yet, on issue after issue, Connecticut Republicans have fallen in line with Trump. Now more than ever we need our GOP colleagues to speak out not only in support of equality, but to hold the president to account for his words and actions. 

It's evident that J.R. Romano's Republican Party is more concerned with scoring political points with the alt-right than offering any constructive solutions.

It should not be difficult to condemn in unequivocal terms the white supremacists in Charlottesville and the violence they have perpetrated. Instead, Connecticut Republican leaders have either remained silent or been defensive about the political fallout on themselves.