Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading 2020 presidential candidate, echoed many of her Democratic colleagues in casting blame on President Trump for the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that killed at least 31 people over the weekend.
A closer look at the profiles of the two suspected killers, however, illustrates the folly of finger-pointing and simplistic solutions.
Connor Betts, the suspected Dayton, Ohio, killer, wrote on Twitter that he would happily vote for Warren and was upset about the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, Heavy.com reported
“I want socialism, and I’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding,” he wrote.
The suspected El Paso shooter, Patrick Crucius, published a manifesto in which he advocated progressive policies such as a universal basic income along with racist prescriptions such as the segregation of non-whites.
Warren, on a special broadcast of “CNN Tonight” Sunday night, accused Trump of winking and nodding at white supremacy, insisting it was his responsibility to fight it.
“White supremacy is a domestic terrorism threat in the same way that foreign terrorism threatens our people,” she said. “And it is the responsibility of the president of the United States to help fight back against that. Not to wink and nod and smile at it and let it get stronger in this country.”
On Monday, however, Trump unequivocally condemned white supremacy.
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” Trump said. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hatred has no place in America.”
Amid the calls for the president and Congress to “do something,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board on Sunday explained why
government can’t help the “disturbed young men” who carry out mass shootings.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, seven people were killed and 53 were injured in shootings over the weekend.
Sanders: ‘A sign they have to take up arms’
In a CNN interview Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, another 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, explicitly tied the shootings to Trump’s “language.”
“I am sure that President Trump does not want anybody in this country to go around shooting other people. But what he has got to understand is that when you have language that is racist, that is virulently anti-immigrant, there are mentally unstable people in this country who see that as a sign to do terrible, terrible things,” Sanders said. “I think the president has to stop the racism and that xenophobia immediately.”
Sanders said Trump must “understand” that “in a nation when you have many, many thousands of people who are mentally unstable, when you talk about invasions and hordes of people, and talk about Mexicans as criminals and rapists, and a country under siege, you have unstable people who see that as a sign they have to take up arms and do the horrific things that we just saw in El Paso.”
Sanders was asked if he believes Trump is a white nationalist.
“I do. It gives me no to pleasure to say this, but I think all of the evidence out there suggests that we have a president who is a racist, who is a xenophobe, who appeals and is trying to appeal to white nationalism,” he said.
Racist remarks?
Sanders and other Democrats repeatedly cite as evidence of “racism” Trump’s comments about Mexicans at the launch of his campaign, his remarks about neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and his travel ban on people from certain terror-sponsoring nations. More recently, Trump’s criticism of the radical policies of the “squad” of four freshman Congress members and his description of Democratic Rep. Elijah Cumming’s district as “rodent-infest” have revived the charge.
At his campaign launch, however, Trump did not say all illegal aliens from Mexico are rapists and killers but pointed out the fact that many people who should not be in the country have committed heinous crimes.
Regarding his oft-cited Charlottesville remark that there are good people “on both sides,” Trump stated at the time that he was not talking about the neo-Nazis. He condemned white supremacy and clarified that there were good people on both sides of the debate about whether or not a statue of Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee should be torn down.
The oft misnamed “Muslim ban” was actually built on an Obama policy that identified nations that either sponsor terrorism or are unable to control it. It affected only about 8 percent of the world’s Muslim population.
Last month, Trump tweeted in response to what he called “anti-American” statements and policies that the “squad” members should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” While his use of the words “go back” could be questioned, missing in the accusations of racist rhetoric is the fact that he completed his statement with, “Then come back and show us how it is done.”
Many Democrats took Trump’s description of neighborhoods in Baltimore as “rodent-infested” as a description of the residents themselves. But Trump made no mention of race — only of the conditions perpetuated by decades of Democratic leadership — and the Democratic mayor of Baltimore and Cummings himself are among those who have described the city in a similar way.
Sanders also didn’t mention that one of his campaign volunteers, James Hodgkinson, tried to murder every member of the Republican congressional baseball team in 2017, severely wounding House Whip Steve Scalise.
‘Consequences of an empty soul’
In a Fox News interview Monday afternoon, Catholic theologian Jonathan Morris said “white supremacy” and racism are “consequences of an empty soul.”
“Because, you go toward something to fill you up. Human beings, we were made for love and for purpose. And when we don’t find it, then we look for something,” he told Dana Perino.
“And [white supremacy and racism] are cheap substitutes, but they have deadly consequences.”
