Rod Thomson



It is to be expected that Democrats will coldly attempt to score political points from the tragic shootings in Texas and Ohio. Integrity-free politicians will do anything to get elected or stay in office.



The combined shootings over the same weekend will predictably create a call for more gun laws that would do nothing to reduce violence or even gun violence in the United States, as is painfully clear in our ongoing lab testing between states and cities with strict gun laws and those with very few.



But the El Paso shooting will get most of the attention, because it combines the left’s loathing of guns with its reflexive use of the word-weapon “racism” all the time. El Paso is a springboard for blaming all Republicans for guns and blaming President Trump for creating a violent anti-immigrant atmosphere.



And inconveniently, the shooter in Ohio was a known supporter of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. His Twitter biography reads, “he/him / anime fan / metalhead / leftist / i’m going to hell and i’m not coming back.” And he supported strict guns laws! All of which means this will be forgotten as quickly as the shooter who shot up the Republican softball team and was a rabid Bernie Sanders supporter.



Ever the opportunist, Demcratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke jumped on this immediately on Face the Nation Sunday. “I’m saying that President Trump has a lot to do with what happened in El Paso yesterday,” he said. Trump “sows the kind of fear, the kind of reaction that we saw in El Paso yesterday.”



But the New York Times, which all leftists and Democrat political leaders read and take cues from, essentially wrote the party talking points for them, right from the “news analysis” lead:



At campaign rallies before last year’s midterm elections, President Trump repeatedly warned that America was under attack by immigrants heading for the border. “You look at what is marching up, that is an invasion!” he declared at one rally. “That is an invasion!”



Nine months later, a 21-year-old white man is accused of opening fire in a Walmart in El Paso, killing 20 people and injuring dozens more after writing a manifesto railing against immigration and announcing that “this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”



There you go, Democrats. It’s spelled out with citations for you by your allies at the New York Times.



Talking Point: Trump used the word “invasion” and the shooter used the word “invasion.”



President Trump said Sunday after the shootings: “Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of it.” On Monday, he tweeted:



“We cannot let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain. Likewise for those so seriously wounded. We can never forget them, and those many who came before them. Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying…this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!”



But here’s how the New York Times summed it up for readers:



“Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of it,” the president said, declining to elaborate but promising to speak more on Monday morning. He made no mention of white supremacy or the El Paso manifesto, but instead focused on what he called “a mental illness problem.”



This is a beautiful example of why Trump needs Twitter and every Republican needs communications outlets that bypass the Democrat media establishment. Does anyone even doubt that in 2019, with zero culture of white supremacy, that anyone who believes in such garbage has mental issues? And just because President Obama would dive in with very few facts doesn’t mean Trump should.



Talking Point: Trump refuses to acknowledge his role in whipping up hate.



What’s really interesting is that in the shooter’s manifesto, he states clearly that his views on immigration “predate Trump,” because even a deranged mass murderer knows what the media and Democrats are going to do with his evil act.



The Times acknowledges the “predate Trump” statement but dismisses it. “But if Mr. Trump did not originally inspire the gunman, he has brought into the mainstream polarizing ideas and people once consigned to the fringes of American society.”



Perhaps the Times has forgotten, but immigration has been one of the most polarizing debates we’ve had for many years. The Times stopped covering it much — and nothing on kids in cages at the border — during President Obama’s eight years, but it turns out that reality still happens even if the Times does not report it. Illegal immigration has been divisive for decades and tens of millions of Americans’ frustration had reached a boiling point long before Trump. It’s part of what got him elected.



But here’s the summary, which you can expect to hear coming out of Democrats’ mouths.



“While other leaders have expressed concern about border security and the costs of illegal immigration, Mr. Trump has filled his public speeches and Twitter feed with sometimes false, fear-stoking language even as he welcomed to the White House a corps of hard-liners, demonizers and conspiracy theorists shunned by past presidents of both parties. Because of this, Mr. Trump is ill equipped to provide the kind of unifying, healing force that other presidents projected in times of national tragedy.”



The Times conveniently forgets how President Obama stoked racial animus after Ferguson, after Baltimore and after Trayvon Martin. Trump may be ill-equipped, but Obama proved repeatedly he was. The Times is silent on that point, because the actual point of their coverage is to set the stage for Democrats to attack Trump and all Republicans.



But this: “he welcomed to the White House a corps of hard-liners, demonizers and conspiracy theorists shunned by past presidents of both parties.” The Times does not name these people, nor point out the haters previous presidents have invited because of political alliances.But it’s a politically useful salvo.



Talking Point: Trump has even invited racist anti-immigration hard-liners to the White House.



El Paso Mayor Dee Margo got it right when, after CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly tried to get him to link the shooting with Trump’s language: “I’m focusing on El Paso. There’s evil in this world and it’s unfortunate.”



Don’t expect to get that reality check from the Democrats or their media.



Rod Thomson is an author, past Salem radio host, ABC TV commentator, former journalist and is Founder of The Revolutionary Act.

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