Trump's Response to Charlottesville Violence Sparks NJ Protests

Protesters in New Jersey rallied outside the offices of the state's Republican congressmen Wednesday to call for action following the violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Va. 

The group Citizens Action organized the rallies at the offices of Leonard Lance, Chris Smith and Tom MacArthur. 

In Westfield, at Lance's district office, constituents left handwritten notes. "We're asking him to support the resolution that would put anyone in the White House with racist or hateful ideas out of the White House," said India Hayes Larrier of Citizen Action. 

Democrats and activists around the country have been calling for the firing of Trump's senior adviser, Stephen Bannon, who is seen as a supporter of white supremacist groups. 

Bill Gottdenker of Mountainside attended the protest, his first. "My father fought the Nazis, I'm Jewish. The fact that Nazis are allowed to parade around and kill people in this country, and torment people and torture people is more than I can take," he said.

Some people in the crowd have been protesting at Lance's office every Wednesday, usually to call for his rejection of the Republican bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act. 

Lance has spoken out against the Charlottesville violence.

"Perhaps we should have hearings regarding various hate groups in the United States. I imagine that would be for the Judiciary Committee, but certainly there is no place in our society for these hate groups," he told WNYC's program, The Takeaway.

Congressional Democrats Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey and Jerold Nadler of New York say they will introduce a resolution to censure President Trump over his remarks following the white supremacist violence on Saturday. Only one U.S. president has ever been censured by Congress, and that was Andrew Jackson in 1834.