The organizer of last year’s fatal white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., now wants to take his show to the White House.
Jason Kessler has applied for a permit to hold a “white civil rights rally” in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., CNN is reporting. Kessler organized last year’s “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville that ignited violence that killed a 32-year-old woman protesting the rally.
Kessler told the Washington Post in an email that he is organizing the event because “white people are being denied the ability to organize in political organizations the way other groups do, free of harassment, to face the issues important to us.”
The National Park Service has approved Kessler’s request for a rally at Lafayette Park that he expects to draw about 400 participants, according to CNN. The park service, however, has not granted a permit, the Post reported.
The dates of the rally, Aug. 11 and 12, correspond with the Aug. 12 anniversary of the deadly events in Charlottesville.
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The National Mall Special Event permit request made on May 8 indicates it is for an event “protesting civil rights abuse in Charlottesville,” the Washington Post reported.
A National Park Service spokesman told the news organization that the agency is collecting information from the organizers on details.
According to the Post, Kessler applied to hold an anniversary rally in Charlottesville, but that city denied jis request. He sued Charlottesville on the grounds that his First Amendment rights were being denied and the case is pending.
AfterJames Fields Jr. ran over Heather Heyer and killed her, Kessler tweeted that she was a “fat, disgusting Communist” and that her death amounted to “payback,” but he later took it back, saying he’d been taking Ambien and Xanax, the Post reported.
In addition to Heyer’s death, 19 other people were reportedly injured in the violence.