CBS on Monday connected Donald Trump to the mass slaughter in Texas, insisting that the President has used “almost identical” rhetoric to that of the apparent shooter. Then, when Trump called out “racism, bigotry and white supremacy” in his speech, the journalists speculated that it wasn’t enough.
Reporter Weijia Jiang previewed what the President might say: “How will he respond to those claims that he is to blame for what happened in El Paso? Given what he know about the shooters motive, given the almost identical language that the gunman used in talking about the crisis at the border with regard to illegal immigration.” She concluded by saying that “words matter.”
Almost identical? In his manifesto, the alleged killer offered support for the mass murder in Christchurch, New Zealand. He ranted about the “great replacement” of white people and discussed the best way to pull off a mass killing. That’s identical?
Here’s some of what Trump said on Monday morning:
Congressional correspondent ancy Cordes responded with the equivalent of not good enough:
At the very top of his speech, he denounced, emphatically, racism and white supremacy. Something that many lawmakers believe is important but who also feel that it may have come to late. They believe that some of the President’s own rhetoric over the last few years has normalized the notion of white supremacy in this country. They think he needs to do a lot more, not only to speak out against it, Norah, but also to curtail his own rhetoric.
Jang returned to echo this CBS contention: “[Trump] directly mentioned the shooter in El Paso who denounced what he called a Hispanic invasion at the border. Some of that language mirrors how President Trump talked about the immigration crisis at the border.”
Partial transcripts are below. Click “expand” to read more:
CBS News Special Report
08/05/19
10:02 a.m. EasternWEIJIA JANG: This isn’t the first time he has made a call for stronger controls like this. In fact, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Valentine’s Day in 2018 he said the same thing. He said that to the parents of the victims inside the White House that he would be strong on and consider raising, for example, the legal age limit to purchase semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21. He specifically mentioned having to do more reviews of people who buy guns and then that went away. That faded after strong push back from his party and the NRA.
And so, he really has to answer here what he means. You mentioned the tweet. But that’s all that we have, unfortunately, is just a few words that something has to happen. And unfortunately, as we have seen in the past, he was vague. There are other things we'll be looking for as the President makes remarks here. Number one, how will he respond to those claims that he is to blame for what happened in El Paso? Given what he know about the shooters motive, given almost identical language that the gunman used in talking about the crisis at the border with regard to illegal immigration. Number two, how will he characterize the shooting because words matter here.
And so far, the President has not used words like racism, white supremacy, heroism so describe this attack. Even though we know federal authorities are investigating this as an act of domestic terrorism. We know that lawmakers on both sides have used the words white racism to describe what happened here. We know his own daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is a very close adviser to the President, even said that white supremacy, like all forms of evil, must be stopped. So, it matters how the President classifies this shooting. He said this is the result of mental illness. He's not used those very words in describing what happened in El Paso. He will also have to talk about the other shooting in Columbus and again, back to our original point, is what happens now. He will have to tell the country what he plans to do to prevent more attacks in the future. Norah.
NORAH O’DONNELL: All right, Weijia Jang at the White House noting that the President has reneged on previous responses to get tougher on background checks.
(....)
10:18 a.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: A strong statement condemning these, what he called crimes against all humanity. The cruelty, the hatred, the malice and saying that America’s hearts are shattered and that America weeps for the fallen.
(....)
10:20 a.m. Eastern
NANCY CORDES: At the very top of his speech, he denounced, emphatically, racism and white supremacy. Something that many lawmakers feel is important but who also feel that it may have come to late. They believe that some of the President’s own rhetoric over the last few years has normalized the notion of white supremacy in this country. They think he needs to do a lot more, not only to speak out against it, Norah, but also to curtail his own rhetoric.
(....)
10:21 a.m. Eastern
WANG: He directly mentioned the shooter in El Paso who denounced what he called a Hispanic invasion at the border. Some of that language mirrors how President Trump talked about the immigration crisis at the border. That's why critics were so quick to draw the link between what happened in El Paso and how the President has been talking about these migrants before. But in this case he brought up that shooter. He said, “These sinister ideologies must be defeated” and he really did set a different tone than he did in the past when it comes to condemning this hate.
