“The KKK and the neo-Nazis depict hate and terror and death,” Assemblyman Tony Thurmond (right), the bill’s Democratic author, said on the Assembly floor. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP California Assembly calls on Congress to censure Trump

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers late Friday formally urged Congress to censure President Donald Trump for his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., the latest salvo in an ongoing feud between the president and Democrats in the nation’s most populous state.

The advisory measure, passed by Democrats in the state Assembly, lends support to an effort by some congressional Democrats to censure Trump after he blamed “both sides” for events surrounding protests by white supremacists that resulted in a Charlottesville woman’s death.


In its resolution, California’s lower house called on Trump “to publicly apologize to all Americans for his racist and bigoted behavior.”

A presidential censure is exceedingly rare in Congress and unlikely to gain traction in the Republican-controlled U.S. House. The California measure, passed on the final day of the state’s legislative session, advanced only as a non-binding resolution.

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“The KKK and the neo-Nazis depict hate and terror and death,” Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, the bill’s Democratic author, said on the Assembly floor. “And President Trump’s comments to legitimize these groups opens up wounds that many have experienced over many, many years. His comments legitimize these groups that promote hate.”

The resolution comes amid ongoing entanglements between California and the Trump administration over issues ranging from climate change to health care and immigration.

At the end of a legislature session marked by legislative Democrats’ frustration with Trump, Republican Assemblyman Matthew Harper complained to his colleagues, “If you want to spend your time talking about Donald Trump from a legislative body, be like [former Assemblyman] Jimmy Gomez, run for Congress. But we’re in the California Legislature and it’s about time we stayed on state business.”