Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI)
Democrats in Congress want President Donald Trump to fire three top aides. Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the presence of Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka has emboldened white supremacists.
“If you’re going to surround yourself with people who are related to the alt-right movement, your’re going to have terrible decisions happening,” Pocan said. “So I think the best thing that you can do is purge the White House of those people with those awful affiliations.”
Chairs and co-chairs of several Congressional caucuses sent a letter to the White House demanding the dismissal of the trio. “Americans deserve to know that white nationalists, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis are not in a position to influence U.S. policy,” the letter states.
Pocan conceded that it’s hard to say who might convince the president to act. “I thought Reince Priebus was an adult in the White House, and unfortunately he was ousted,” Pocan said. “It gets more and more difficult every day.”
During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump again blamed what he had earlier referred to as “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville over the weekend, and said many of those who attended the Unite The Right rally were “very fine people.”