A8 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, AUGUST 5 , 2019
ing public discourse, of challeng-
ing us to rise to our best selves, to
speak t o our b etter a ngels — not to
talk about people on both sides
being equal. Not to appeal to hate
and d ivision.”
And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
said on CNN: “What he has got to
understand is that when you have
language that is racist, that i s viru-
lently anti-immigrant, there are
mentally unstable people in this
country, who see that as a sign to
do terrible, terrible t hings.”
To experts in the field, the El
Paso rampage was predictable.
Frank Figliuzzi, a former head of
counterintelligence at the FBI,
wrote in a column published just
four days earlier in the New York
Times that Trump’s words even-
tually could incite bloodshed.
“The president has fallen short
of calling for overt violence
against minorities and immi-
grants, but unbalanced minds
among us may fail to note the
distinction,” Figliuzzi wrote. “If a
president paints people of color a s
the enemy, encourages them to be
sent back t o where they came f rom
and implies that no humans want
to live in certain American cities,
he gives license to those who feel
compelled to eradicate what Mr.
Trump calls a n infestation.”
ph [email protected]Chelsea Janes in Las Vegas and
Felicia Sonmez and Sean Sullivan in
Washington contributed to this report.Leonar d Zeskind, author of
“Blood and Politics,” a history of
the white nationalist movement,
said the ugliest phenomena often
develop in countries when there is
a vacuum of moral leadership. Ze-
skind explained that white n ation-
alism is autonomous from a ny p o-
litical formation, but that Trump
energizes its followers.
“He gives it voice. He’s their
megaphone,” Zeskind said. He
added, “Donald Trump, dumping
on immigrants all the time, cre-
ates an atmosphere where some
people interpret that t o be a n okay
sign for violence against immi-
grants.”
On the campaign trail Sunday,
many of the Democrats hoping to
defeat Trump drew parallels be-
tween his rhetoric and the El Paso
shooting and denounced his han-
dling o f white supremacy.
“I want to say with more moral
clarity that Donald Trump is re-
sponsible for this,” Sen. Cory
Booker (D-N.J.) said on CNN. “He
is responsible because he is stok-
ing fears and hatred and bigotry.
He is responsible because he is
failing to condemn white suprem-
acy, and seeing it as it is, which is
responsible for such a significant
amount of the terrorist attacks.”
Sen. Kamala D. H arris (D-Calif.)
told reporters outside a church in
Las Vegas: “The w ords o f the p resi-
dent of the United States have
consequences.” Trump, she a dded,
has “the responsibility of elevat-human being would want to live
there.”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of
history at New York University
and expert on authoritarianism,
said Trump h as been strategic.
“This is a concerted attempt to
construct and legitimize an ideol-
ogy of hatred against nonwhite
people and the idea that whites
will be replaced by others,” she
said. “When you have a racist in
power who incites violence
through his speeches, his tweets,
and you add in this volatile situa-
tion of very laxly regulated arms,
this is u ncharted territory.”
FBI Director Christopher A.
Wray testified in the Senate last
month that the bureau has seen a
recent uptick in the number of
domestic terrorism arrests and
that most involved some form of
white s upremacy.
But Trump has done little to
vigorously confront this crisis that
his own government is trying to
combat. In the wake of the deadly
2017 white supremacist rally in
Charlottesville, Trump at first
claimed there were good people
on both sides before later back-
tracking, and only under pressure
from his a dvisers.
And after a white supremacist
was accused of killing 51 Muslims
in New Zealand, Trump d ismissed
the idea that white nationalism
was a rising threat, saying it was
only “a small group of people that
have very, v ery serious problems.”Clinton is president.”
Republican National Commit-
tee C hairwoman Ronna McDaniel
tweeted that O’Rourke’s com-
ments on CNN were “disgusting
and wrong.” S he added, “A t ragedy
like this is not an opportunity to
reboot your failing presidential
campaign.”
Regardless of the El Paso s hoot-
er’s motivations, Trump through-
out his presidency has stoked fear
and hatred of the other, whether
Latino immigrants or black peo-
ple l iving in cities or Muslims.
Although he has not directly
espoused the “great replacement”
theory of white supremacists,
Trump has openly questioned
America’s identity as a multieth-
nic n ation, such as by encouraging
migration from Nordic states as
opposed to Latin America.
In speeches and on social me-
dia, the president has capitalized
on divisions of race, religion and
identity as a political strategy to
galvanize support among his
white followers. Last month he
attacked four congresswomen of
color and said they should “go
back” to the countries they came
from, even though three were
born in the United States and all
four are U. S. citizens. Most r ecent-
ly, Trump lashed out at R ep. Elijah
E. Cummings (D-Md.), one of the
highest-ranking black lawmakers,
by calling his Baltimore district “a
disgusting, rat and rodent infest-
ed mess” and claiming that “noon social media.
On Sunday afternoon, Trump
announced that he had ordered
federal government flags flown at
half-staff in honor of the El Paso
attack and a mass slaying early
Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, and that
he would address the shootings
Monday at 1 0 a.m.
“Hate has no place in our coun-
try, and we’re going to take care of
it,” Trump said in Morristown,
N.J., just before flying home to
Washington. He did not respond
to questions from reporters about
the El Paso shooter’s manifesto
but said generally that “this has
been going on for years” and ac-
knowledged that “perhaps more
has t o be done.”
Mick Mulvaney, the acting
White House chief of staff, flatly
dismissed the suggestion that
Trump was to blame.
“Goodness gracious, is some-
one really blaming the president?
People a re sick,” Mulvaney said o n
NBC. He p ointed to the m anifesto,
adding, “If you do read that, you
can see him say that he’s felt this
way for a long time, from even
before President Trump got elect-
ed.”
Mulvaney acknowledged that
“some people don’t approve of the
verbiage that the president uses,”
but h e argued: “ People are going to
hear what they want to hear. My
guess is this guy’s in that parking
lot out in El Paso, Texas, in that
Walmart doing this even if Hillarythe question surrounding the
president is no longer whether he
will respond as other presidents
once did, but whether his words
contributed t o the c arnage.
Since the moment Trump rode
down his gold-plated escalator
four years ago to start his rene-
gade run for the White House,
us-against-them language about
immigrants has been a consistent
and defining feature of his cam-
paign and now of his presidency.
Absent from his repertoire has
been a forceful repudiation of the
white nationalism taking rise on
his watch.
Authorities in El Paso have not
announced a motive in what they
call an act of domestic terrorism,
but a t the c enter o f their investiga-
tion is an anti-immigrant manifes-
to. Officials believe the shooter
posted it shortly before he opened
fire but continue to investigate.
Patrick Crusius has been
named a s the s uspect.
Portions of the 2,300-word es-
say, titled “The Inconvenient
Truth,” closely mirror Trump’s
rhetoric, as well as t he language of
the white nationalist movement,
including a warning about the
“Hispanic invasion o f Te xas.”
The author’s ideology is so
aligned with the president’s that
he decided to conclude the mani-
festo by clarifying that his views
predate Trump’s 2016 campaign
and arguing that blaming him
would amount to “fake news,” an-
other Trump p hrase.
The extent to which t he s hooter
was motivated by the president’s
words will be fiercely debated in
the days to come, and could be
answered by the investigation. But
some Democratic leaders on Sun-
day said Trump’s demagoguery
makes him plainly culpable.
Beto O’Rourke, a former con-
gressman from El Paso running
for p resident, said i t was a ppropri-
ate to label Trump a white nation-
alist and said his rhetoric is remi-
niscent of Nazi Germany.
“He doesn’t just tolerate it; he
encourages it, calling Mexican i m-
migrants rapists and criminals,
warning of an invasion at our bor-
der, seeking to ban all people of
one r eligion. Folks are responding
to this,” O’Rourke said on CNN. He
added, “He is saying that some
people are inherently defective or
dangerous, reminiscent of some-
thing that you might hear in the
Third Reich, not something that
you expect in the United States of
America.”
Ensconced over the weekend at
his New Jersey golf club, Trump
was silent about the El Paso mas-
sacre other than a few tweets. In
one sent Saturday night, he called
the s hooting “an a ct o f cowardice”
and s aid, “I stand with everyone in
this Country to condemn today’s
hateful act. There are no reasons
or excuses that will ever justify
killing innocent p eople.”
Although a press pool traveled
with Trump to New Jersey, the
president opted not t o address the
nation Saturday. He did, however,
find time to stop by a wedding
reception being held at t he Trump
National Golf Club Bedminster
and p ose for photos w ith the bride,
according to images circulating
TRUMP FROM A
Mass shootings in America
BY FELICIA SONMEZ
AND PAUL KANEThe Republican Party, which
controls power in Washington
and both states where America’s
most recent mass shootings oc-
curred, struggled on Sunday to
provide a response or offer a solu-
tion to what has become a public
safety e pidemic.
There were thoughts and
prayers, an appeal to donate
blood, accolades for law enforce-
ment and a presidential procla-
mation to lower flags to half-staff
to honor the v ictims — 2 9 killed in
El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, and
dozens more wounded over 13
hours.
Some Republicans, including
House M inority Leader Kevin Mc-
Carthy (Calif.) and Te xas Lt. Gov.
Dan Patrick, cited the influence of
social media and video games or
mentioned mental health prob-
lems. But on the question of how
to stem the rising tide of gun
violence, the overwhelming re-
sponse from the party was silence
or generalities.
“We have to get it stopped. This
has been going on for y ears,” P resi-
dent Trump told reporters Sunday
afternoon shortly before return-
ing to Washington — his first pub-
lic comments since the s hootings.
The reaction mirrored how the
GOP has responded after other
mass shootings whose city names
have become painfully familiar to
most Americans — Parkland, Fla.;
Sutherland Springs, Tex.; Las Ve-
gas; Virginia Beach; Pittsburgh
and Annapolis.
A handful of Republican law-
makers on Sunday endorsed
stricter gun controls, but most in
the GOP ignored Democratic de-
mands that the Senate abandon
its summer recess and return to
Washington to address the issue.
The House passed two bills in
February that Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
has refused to consider.
Congress has been unable to
agree on sweeping g un legislation
since the 1990s. Lawmakers tried,
and failed, after the 2012 shoot-
ings in Newtown, Conn., killed 20
children, but the National Rifle
Association’s support for the par-
ty, the demands of rural voters and
Republican warnings about un-
dermining Second Amendment
rights have made it nearly impos-
sible for lawmakers to take any
steps forward.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
said a broader discussion on men-
tal health needs to take place, not
just a conversation on g un laws.
“Do we need more laws? Yeah,we probably do.... And I think
there’s a consensus now that we
need background checks,” Port-
man said a t a Sunday news confer-
ence. But, he added: “It’s not just
about laws. It’s about something
deeper.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said
in a tweet that lawmakers “need to
keep trying” but that “sadly, there
are some issues, like homeless-
ness and these shootings, where
we simply don’t have all the an-
swers.”
And Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.),
whose hometown of Charleston
suffered a racist mass murder in a
historical black church in 2015,
defended the power of prayer in
the aftermath of these e vents, say-
ing that the family members o f the
nine p arishioners killed in his city
prayed and f orgave the murderer.
“A lot of folks say that prayers
don’t matter. Well, I will disagree
with them vehemently,” Scott said
on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
After the shootings at Parkland
High School in February 2018,
when a gunman killed 17 students
and staff, Trump briefly embraced
a plan to raise the minimum age
for gun purchases. He then made
an abrupt a bout-face, instead roll-
ing out a proposal that did not
include substantial changes to
gun l aws.
Last year, the president signed
a memorandum directing t he Jus-
tice Department to ban bump
stocks, which let rifles fire morerapidly.
Senate Democrats on Sunday
demanded more aggressive steps,
calling on McConnell to schedule
votes on at least the two bills
passed by the House, focusing on
background checks for gun pur-
chases and transfers.
“Why run for Congress if you
aren’t prepared to pass laws that
make people safer?” asked Sen.
Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “These
shooters, contemplating mass
slaughter, take note of their gov-
ernment’s i naction, and they infer
this s ilence as endorsement.”
The two bills represent the first
significant legislation restricting
gun rights to be approved by ei-
ther the House or Senate since just
after the 1999 Columbine High
School massacre. The first bill,
receiving 240 votes — with just
eight Republicans voting “yes” —
would extend existing laws to re-
quire background checks for all
gun sales and most gun t ransfers.
The second bill, which passed
with support from three Republi-
cans, aims to close the “Charleston
loophole,” a reference to the 2015
shooting in South Carolina. The
gunman was able to purchase the
weapons after a three-day federal
background check failed to turn
up a prior conviction, and this
proposal would extend that win-
dow for completing a background
check to at l east 10 business days.
Trump has threatened to veto
both measures, and any cancella-tion of the Senate’s recess appears
unlikely: McConnell, who frac-
tured his shoulder Sunday morn-
ing in a fall outside his Louisville
home, declined to address Demo-
cratic calls for a special session.
Some House Democrats called
on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
to call their chamber back into
session to press for more aggres-
sive gun-control legislation than
the modest proposals on back-
ground checks.
Rep. Te d Deutch (D-Fla.),
whose district includes Parkland
High School, has introduced legis-
lation that would limit the size of
gun magazines, an issue Demo-
crats pointed to in light of the
massive number of victims this
weekend’s shooters hit in just a
matter of minutes.
“They’re what these mass kill-
ers rely upon to fire as many
rounds as they can,” Deutch said
in a telephone interview. “We
need t o get back i nto session.”
Republicans on the Sunday
morning news shows made little
mention of gun control legisla-
tion. Acting White House chief of
staff Mick Mulvaney said the
Trump administration was will-
ing to have a “broad-based d iscus-
sion” about the causes of mass
shootings — but he emphasized
factors like social media in addi-
tion to weaknesses in the back-
ground-check system.
“We’ve had guns i n this country
for hundreds of years. We haven’thad this until recently, and we
need to figure out why,” Mulvaney
said.
Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-
Ohio), whose district includes
Dayton, said his daughter and a
family friend had just entered the
Tumbleweed Connection bar
when the shooting began across
the street. They fled and later
recounted the “bravery they wit-
nessed as officers ran toward the
gun shots,” he said in a tweet.
Some Senate Republicans fac-
ing tough reelection b attles reiter-
ated their support for stronger
background checks, something
that Congress tried to partially
address with legislation in 2018
designed to improve the National
Instant Criminal Background
Check system.
“I have long supported closing
loopholes in background checks
to prevent the sale of firearms to
criminals and i ndividuals with s e-
rious mental illness,” Sen. Susan
Collins (R-Maine) said in a state-
ment, referring to a bipartisan
measure by Sens. Joe Manchin III
(D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. To omey
(R-Pa.).
And Te xas Land Commissioner
George P. Bush, nephew of former
president George W. Bush, issued
a statement Saturday denouncing
the El Paso attack and declaring
that “all terrorism must be
stopped.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Among prayers and praise for law enforcement, few proposals for change
Few Republicans
respond with concrete
legislative plansSome wonder whether Tr ump’s rhetoric fueled violence
JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
President Trump walks out to speak at a rally in Cincinnati on Thursday. His us-against-them language about immigrants has been a consistent theme of his presidency.