Kentucky Senator and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is addressing the possibility of a protest by white supremacists in Lexington.

Matthew Heimbach, founder of the "Traditionalist Worker Party," told multiple media outlets that he and other white supremacists are considering coming to Lexington to protest the removal of two Confederate statues.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Senator McConnell said "The white supremacist, KKK, and neo-nazi groups who brought hatred and violence to Charlottesville are now planning a rally in Lexington. Their messages of hate and bigotry are not welcome in Kentucky and should not be welcome anywhere in America. We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head."

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray proposed removing and relocating the statues of John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge from Cheapside Park over the weekend, following deadly violence at a statue protest in Charlottesville, Virginia. He says he planned to make the proposal this week, but the events in Charlottesville caused him to move up his announcement. On Tuesday, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council moved the proposal forward by unanimously voting to put the issue of relocating the statues on their agenda for Thursday's meeting.

Heimbach has not said when a protest in Lexington might take place. He told WKYT's news partners at the Lexington Herald-Leader that the goal is to have one sooner rather than later.