A small group of people that have very, very serious problems
The Guardian points out, in case we’d missed it, that the shooting of the week yesterday doesn’t make Trump look good. You don’t say.
Trump unequivocally condemned the shooting, telling a rally on Saturday evening in Wisconsin: “Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community. We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated.”
Oh stop. Trump read words that someone wrote for him. He doesn’t “forcefully condemn the evil of hate”; he stokes it every time he opens his mouth or taps his phone.
But the president stated last month, following a hate-inspired mass shooting that left 50 Muslim worshipers dead in Christchurch, New Zealand, that he did not believe white nationalism presented a growing threat.
“I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess,” Trump told reporters in March.
Of course he says that when asked. It’s a small group of people far far far away from him, on a tiny island in the Pacific somewhere, with Problems.
The shooter in Saturday’s attack in Poway, near San Diego, was named as a white 19 year-old man, John Earnest. Authorities were examining a series of online posts linked to the suspect that are littered with anti-Semitic and racist language.
Much as Trump’s tweets and speeches at rallies are, although he tends to rant about football players and asylum seekers more than people in synagogues.