The Republican Party bears responsibility for today’s fatal violence in Charlottesville.

In May, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill that would legally protect drivers who run over protesters in the street. “I became concerned for drivers after watching the recent protests which turned into riots in Charlotte and other cities,” Republican Rep. Justin Burr told Fox News at the time.  In Tennessee, Republican State Rep. Matthew Hill introduced a similar bill, telling WJHL 11, “The legislation is, if someone’s in a car and they take due care, that’s the legal term. Meaning not doing it on purpose. No malicious intent, nothing like that and they accidentally hit someone the protester that they hit cannot come back on them and sue them in civil court. Civil court is the key.”

One wonders how Hill and Burr define malicious intent, but perhaps they should watch these disturbing videos of a car ramming into a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators today in Charlottesville, Virginia:

At least one person has died, according to the city’s mayor:

Charlottesville police have arrested a suspect in the hit-and-run. Based on the footage, in which the car flees the scene in reverse, it is difficult to believe the attack is accidental. Bystanders estimate the car’s speed at about 40 miles an hour:

Meanwhile, this was how the president of the United States responded to the clash in Charlottesville:

Note that Trump doesn’t identify the culprits here—white supremacists—because doing so would indict himself for stoking violent, racist nationalism in the U.S. Trump built this. The GOP helped him do it. This is Virginia, after all, where Republican Corey Stewart narrowly lost the GOP nomination for governor after defending the very Robert E. Lee statue that white supremacists gathered to defend today; he is now running for Senate, and he may just win. As we learn more about the Charlottesville suspect and his victims, remember who is to blame.