Opponents of President Trump have been quick to accuse the president of fomenting white supremacist sentiment in the wake of the horrific weekend shooting in El Paso, Texas, where a racially motivated shooter murdered 22 people. Now MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough has denounced the president’s donors for supporting a white supremacist campaign.
“The president never tones down his rhetoric. In fact, for those of you who are funding Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, you may want to take note that because you keep writing checks to this president, it’s on you, it really is, because you are funding this white supremacist campaign,” Scarborough said on Monday, according to The Hill.
“It’s your money that is funding this white supremacy because you won’t tell him to stop,” continued Scarborough. “You won’t tell him ‘talk about the economy and I’ll write you a check, keep up the white supremacist attacks and I’m gonna ask for a refund.'”
The “Morning Joe” host went as far as accusing some Trump donors of being white supremacists themselves. “Why is that? Are you a white supremacist? Does your company support white supremacy? Does a corporation that you run, do they support white supremacy? Because the attacks and the attempts continue,” he said.
President Trump has never praised or supported white supremacy during his White House tenure. Indeed, on the very same day that Joe Scarborough denounced him as a white supremacist, the president issued a message in which he said such hatred has no place in America.
“These sinister ideologies must be defeated,” the president said. “Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.”
The president even called for measures such as “red-flag laws” to determine if an individual will potentially engage in mass shootings. “We have asked the FBI to identify all further resources they need to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism — whatever they need,” Trump said. “We must recognize that the internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize, disturb minds, and perform demented acts. We must shine light on the dark recesses of the internet and stop mass murders before they start.”
“The internet is likewise used for human trafficking, illegal drug distribution, and so many other heinous crimes,” he continued. “The perils of the internet and social media cannot be ignored and they will not be ignored.”
Some members of the mainstream media have pivoted from their criticism of President Trump to a focus on Trump’s lack of support for gun control measures. From CNN:
Trump’s speech proposed action to prevent more killings. He suggested imposing the death penalty for hate crimes and talked about the dangers of video games and the Internet. But he didn’t offer much in the way of gun control, in contrast with earlier tweets in which he claimed he was prepared to support vigorous background checks for gun buyers.
America suffered hundreds of mass killings before Trump became president. That is the result of out-of-control access to deadly weapons. We know that because other countries have the internet, video games, mental illness and other factors that the NRA and its supporters frequently cite to explain the killings. But only the US has this arsenal of guns and this many gun deaths.
Over the same weekend, a shooter — who appears to be a leftist — killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio. But the media has expressly focused on President Trump.