A mass shooting this weekend in El Paso has prompted comparisons between the shooter’s apparently racist motives of preventing a “Hispanic invasion,” according to a manifesto authorities think he may have posted, and President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Many are pointing to the president’s words and actions for encouraging the same anti-immigrant beliefs that apparently led to the massacre in El Paso. …
In fact, such concerns about Trump’s rhetoric were widespread even before he became president. In a December 2016 poll by the Pew Research Center, for instance, 54 percent said that Trump has done “too little” to distance himself from “white nationalist groups, who believe that whites should be favored in the U.S. over people of other races and ethnicities.”
Most Americans have also consistently said that Trump has encouraged white supremacist groups during his presidency. CONT.
Michael Tesler (UC Irvine), Monkey Cage
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