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Speaker 1: The violence at the rally of white supremacist in Charlottesville

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Speaker 1: on Saturday has led to calls for public officials to

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Speaker 1: uncategorically condemned the violent actions of the white supremacists and

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Speaker 1: to call out the present for failing to do so.

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Speaker 1: While senior GOP leaders have tried to distance themselves from

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Speaker 1: Trump's remarks, none of the most senior GOP leaders in

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Speaker 1: the House or Senate criticized Trump directly or called on

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Speaker 1: him to repudiate his remarks, and now Republicans are ignoring

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Speaker 1: the calls of Democrats in the House and Senate for

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Speaker 1: hearings on the rise of white supremacy and domestic terrorism.

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Speaker 1: Jortie me is Michael Gerhardt, a professor at u n

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Speaker 1: C Law School. Michael The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck

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Speaker 1: Grassley has said he has no plans to call for

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Speaker 1: hearing focused on the events in Charlottesville, and the House

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Speaker 1: Homeland Security Committee chair Michael McCall has refused to schedule

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Speaker 1: a special hearing. Why this refusal to explore a controversy

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Speaker 1: that's gripping the country, concerning many people. Well, it's a

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Speaker 1: good question. Um. There may be a couple of possible answers.

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Speaker 1: I mean, one is that it may well be that

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Speaker 1: the chair people of those different committees don't want to

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Speaker 1: kind of over politicized issue, or they may feel like

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Speaker 1: there's not enough evidence UM to suggest that Congress needs

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Speaker 1: to intercede at this point. If Congress gets involved, it's

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Speaker 1: typically to see how well the laws that's enacted are

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Speaker 1: being enforced to deal with the particular problem. They just

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Speaker 1: may not be convinced or persuaded that there are federal

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Speaker 1: laws that are are not working here as number one

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Speaker 1: and number two. They may not be convinced or persuaded

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Speaker 1: that there it's it's a sizeable problem or a national

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Speaker 1: problem as opposed to a local one. Uh. The counter argument,

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Speaker 1: obviously is that UM, this does seem to be a

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Speaker 1: form of domestic terrorism, and there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: people that might be concerned about just how widespread it

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Speaker 1: is or how well or effective the laws are working

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Speaker 1: that are supposed to be addressing it. UM are in

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Speaker 1: fact working, So, Michael, there are two sides to this.

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Speaker 1: Some people say, well, what tangible action can Congress take

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Speaker 1: to help the situation with these hearings, and others say, well,

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Speaker 1: it's important to call attention to the problem and hold hearings.

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Speaker 1: Which side are you on? Uh, well, I I certainly

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Speaker 1: think it's important to call attention to the problem. I

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Speaker 1: am not an expert in this kind of problem, so

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Speaker 1: I don't know to what extent or how widespread it

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Speaker 1: might be. I've I've heard reports in some media outlets

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Speaker 1: that maybe there's many as nine domestic terrorist organizations or

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Speaker 1: something along those lines. So maybe, UM, without in the

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Speaker 1: absence of hearings, it might be useful to educate the

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Speaker 1: American people about the scope or nature of this particular problem. Certainly, UM,

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Speaker 1: having government stand up against this kind of thing is important.

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Speaker 1: I think congressional leaders, Uh, many of them have tried

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Speaker 1: to do that. Um. The President seems to be going

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Speaker 1: back and forth a little bit on that. So I think,

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Speaker 1: to some extent, what a lot of people would like

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Speaker 1: is some reassurance that the federal government is unified in

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Speaker 1: opposing violence that are being directed by or caused by

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Speaker 1: these kinds of organizations. UM. I believe it was The

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Speaker 1: Hill that reported that Democratic Representative Steve Cohen has requested

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Speaker 1: details about the Department of Homeland Security and Department of

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Speaker 1: Justices programs that target extremism because there have been reports

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Speaker 1: that the Trump administration has de emphasized resources for combating

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Speaker 1: domestic threats in favor of focusing on foreign terrorism. UM

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Speaker 1: have do you know about about that? Is that something

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Speaker 1: that the American public should know? Yes, I mean I'm

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Speaker 1: somewhat familiar with that, and and and UM and so

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Speaker 1: that is a very fair question for Congress to have

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Speaker 1: to address. In other words, UH, where where should our

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Speaker 1: resources be going? Do we need to beef up our

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Speaker 1: enforcement or investigation of domestic terrorism? Um as a trade

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Speaker 1: off and trying to sort of focus on one or another.

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Speaker 1: These are perfectly appropriate policy questions for Congress to address,

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Speaker 1: UM and one hopes that Congress would address them. And

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Speaker 1: at the same time, we'd have to be concerned about

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Speaker 1: if Congress doesn't address them, if we're kind of left

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Speaker 1: with whatever laws we have in the books, UM that

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Speaker 1: could be used here, How effective are they? That's another

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Speaker 1: question that could and perhaps should be asked. UM And

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Speaker 1: because one uh, one can guess that this is not

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Speaker 1: the last time we're going to see a rally like this,

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Speaker 1: their threats that other rallies like this will take place

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Speaker 1: in other parts of the country. UH, particularly I happen

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Speaker 1: to live in Chapel and North Conta, particularly in the

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Speaker 1: South Um, but maybe elsewhere. And so one I think

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Speaker 1: a lot of people want to be assured that the

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Speaker 1: federal government, among other things, is going to be watching

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Speaker 1: this and trying to do what it can to kind of,

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Speaker 1: uh keep it from spilling over into violence or other

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Speaker 1: illgal activities. We'll have to leave it there, thank you.

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Speaker 1: That's Michael Gerhard, professor at U n C Law School,