Lawmakers took to the airwaves on Sunday to discuss the role that President Trump's rhetoric has played in sparking white supremacy around the globe, following the mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, carried out by Brenton Tarrant, a racist, anti-immigrant Australian man. Tarrant cited Trump as a source of inspiration in a manifesto he wrote before he killed 50 people on Friday.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday's edition of State of the Union that Trump's rhetoric is, at the very least, dividing people. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) similarly argued on CBS's Face the Nation that while Trump is not "creating" white nationalists, his language is "emboldening" them.

Klobuchar, Kaine, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who also appeared on State of the Union with Tapper, all said Trump needs to do more to condemn white supremacy and the acts of violence it inspires, which all three Democrats agreed are on the rise in the United States.

"He needs to do better by us and the country. He needs to speak up and condemn this very loud and very clearly."



Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib says that when it comes to the rise of White Supremacy Pres. Trump needs to look at the data, information and facts and "actually listen." pic.twitter.com/RGp1G58t9H — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 17, 2019

Trump on Friday said that while what happened in Christchurch was a "horrible thing," he did not feel that white nationalism was on the rise, and that it is only a small group of people orchestrating such crimes. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Friday that Tarrant was wrong to consider Trump a symbol of "white identity." Tim O'Donnell