Coloradans Rally Against Violence by White Supremacists, Domestic Terrorists

Coloradans quickly responded to the violence in Charlottesville on August 12. Resistance 5280, along with partner groups in Denver and Colorado, planned a rally to oppose "racism, hatred and in solidarity with everyone resisting oppression everywhere."

An estimated thousand protesters gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. statue in City Park on the afternoon of August 13, where they listened to speakers who had to compete with noise from the nearby Colorado classic. Then they marched along East Colfax Avenue to the State Capitol, weathering a deluge of rain along the way. But despite the challenges, the organizers succeeded in their goal of hosting "a peaceful gathering to show unity, strength and power." (See our Resistance 5280 anti-violence slideshow.)

Also standing up was Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, who'd tweeted this in response to Donald Trump's statement about violence from "many sides" during a quick appearance at his New Jersey golf club: "Mr. President — we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”

And the Republican senator followed his tweets with an appearance on CNN's State of the Union early August 13. "This is not a time for vagaries," Gardner told Jake Tapper. "This isn't a time for innuendo or to allow room to be read between the lines. This is a time to lay blame."

After months of calls for town-hall meetings, Gardner is finally holding three gatherings along the Front Range on Tuesday, August 15. While Trump's response to Charlottesville is likely to come up there, too, constituents will probably have plenty of blame to lay on Gardner for his stance on health-care issues.