Pete Buttigieg cslls out Trump's white nationalism for mass shootings.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg called out Trump for condoning white nationalism at the highest levels of government and called the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton terrorism.
Video:
Transcript via Fox News Sunday:
Chris Wallace: After the terrible shooting in El Paso yesterday, you said that this country is under attack from homegrown, violent, white nationalism. Explain, sir.
Mayor Buttigieg: Well, this is terrorism, and we have to name it as such. It is very clear that the loss of American life in Charleston, in San Diego, in Pittsburgh — by all appearances now, in El Paso too — is symptomatic of the effects of white nationalist terrorism. We cannot keep America safe from this threat to the American people if we are not prepared to name it and confront it. We need an administration that is ready to do that, and we can’t keep pretending that this is just random, or that this is something we can’t confront. What you have here is two things coming together: one, the weak gun safety policies of this country, and two, the rise of domestic terrorism inspired by white nationalists. We need to acknowledge that this is a problem, that American lives are at risk — and we’ve got to do something about it.
Chris Wallace: At least one of the other Democratic presidential candidates, Beto O’Rourke, has said that President Trump and his rhetoric bear some responsibility for the acts of this madman. Do you think that’s fair?
Mayor Buttigieg: Well, there is no question that white nationalism is condoned at the highest levels of our government. You know, when this kind of rhetoric happened twenty years ago when David Duke was trying to run for office as a Republican, the Republican party was horrified — they couldn’t run away fast enough. Right now, you see it being echoed by the White House, and there is a measure of responsibility that you just can’t get away from when you have, you know, case after case of racial rhetoric coming out of the White House. And then when you have an actual incident of white nationalist terrorism, like the killing in Charlottesville related to people saying “Jews will not replace us” and the president saying you’ve got very fine people there, of course, this is part of a climate where people who are in the grip of this hateful, extremist ideology feel validated — and they feel validated from all the way at the top, and that is part of our problem.
Mass shootings did not start with Donald Trump, but he has taken a subset of mass shooters (white nationalists) and made them feel enabled and encouraged. No one is blaming Trump for all gun violence or any other absurd argument that the right will make. Trump’s racist rhetoric is appealing and inspiring to people who hear Trump claim daily that the nation is being invaded by immigrants. They see a president who is on “their side,” and it gives them the confidence to act.
Republicans attack video games and claim that the solution is school prayer, all while ignoring that Trump is pouring gasoline on the white nationalist fire.
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