Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr., responding on Sunday to the shooting deaths of at least 20 people in El Paso, Texas, said the U.S. is in the midst of a "cold civil war."

"What happens when we use language like 'infestation'?" Glaude said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "You set the stage for people who are even more on the extreme to act violently."

"We are in a cold civil war. And there are some people who bear the burden of it," Glaude added.

"We have children in El Paso right now who just witnessed their friends and family members shot down because someone thinks there's a Hispanic invasion of the country, which is almost the exact same language of the president of the United States," he added.

The suspect in Saturday's massacre at a Walmart in El Paso is alleged to have written a white nationalist manifesto ahead of his attack.

Numerous Democrats and 2020 hopefuls condemned President Trump's immigration rhetoric after the El Paso shooting, noting his own frequent references to an "invasion" by migrants, particularly ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Fellow NBC guest and former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) on Sunday denied rhetoric by critics of immigration played a part in the shooting in El Paso and defended the use of the term "illegal immigrant," which Glaude said was part of the dehumanizing language that inspired the shooter.

A separate, apparently unrelated shooting occurred in Dayton, Ohio, in the early hours of Sunday morning.