After killing Democrat's version, Tennessee Republicans file resolution against neo-Nazis

Two weeks after a subcommittee killed a Democrat's resolution calling for the state legislature to denounce neo-Nazis, Republicans have introduced a nearly identical one of their own.

The second version, filed Wednesday, is virtually the same as the one introduced by Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville.

More: Tennessee legislators decline to pass resolution denouncing neo-Nazism

More: Southern Poverty Law Center: Neo-Nazi, KKK chapters among new hate groups in Tennessee

It omits a paragraph that urges law enforcement to recognize and pursue white nationalist groups as "domestic terrorist organizations."

The new resolution's sponsor, House Republican Caucus Chairman Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, didn't respond to an inquiry Thursday.

In a statement to USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, Clemmons criticized Republicans in the General Assembly not only for failing to pass the initial version, but also for plagiarizing his language, he said.

"In yet another example of how out of touch this Republican supermajority has become, they are the only people in this state who would ever require a second chance to denounce neo-Nazis and their acts of violence," Clemmons said.

Clemmons added that the reintroduction of what was essentially his bill meant "they either have an intra-party dispute about whether Nazis are bad or they killed my resolution for politically partisan reasons or both."

Regarding whether he was still glad to see such a resolution appear again in the legislature, Clemmons said he believed it was vital for the state to formally denounce neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

Republican subcommittee members previously declined to hear neo-Nazi bill

When Clemmons appeared before the House State Government Subcommittee March 14, he failed to receive a second motion in order to discuss the resolution.

The subcommittee's single Democrat, Rep. Darren Jernigan, D-Old Hickory, made the initial motion.

Following the committee's refusal to hear the resolution March 14, Clemmons told USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee that he was "in utter disbelief at what just happened," noting that he didn't expect his call for the legislature to denounce neo-Nazis to be controversial.

The next day, Williams blamed the Democratic legislator's resolution failing on Clemmons not lining up enough votes to take up the bill prior to the subcommittee convening.

What the Tennessee resolution denouncing neo-Nazis would do

Both House Joint Resolutions, the first of which was filed by Clemmons in August just days after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, states that white nationalist and neo-Nazi ideologies “remain very real threats to social and racial progress."

Clemmons' version asked law enforcement agencies to consider the groups “domestic terrorist organizations," a term previously used by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Republican, to describe the fatal car attack after the Charlottesville rally.

His resolution calls for law enforcement to pursue criminal charges against them as police would in other types of terrorism, though Williams' version does not.

If approved, the House will resolve to “strongly denounce and oppose the totalitarian impulses, violent terrorism, xenophobic biases, and bigoted ideologies that are promoted” by white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups.

Copies of the resolution would be sent to President Donald Trump, all members of Congress, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and all members of the state legislature, according to the resolution.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.