The president condemned the Christchurch attack but said that white nationalism is not a growing threat around the world

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Donald Trump claimed on Monday the US media were blaming him for a deadly shooting attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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Fifty people died in the attack, which happened on Friday. A suspect has been charged with murder.

In the aftermath of the attack, Trump condemned it but also said he did not believe white nationalism was a growing threat around the world.

“I don’t really,” he said. “I think it’s a small group of people.”

He spoke shortly after describing immigration to the US as an “invasion”, the same term the alleged New Zealand shooter used to describe Muslim immigrants in a manifesto that was subsequently reported to have been sent to politicians and media outlets.

The manifesto is full of white supremacist ranting and praises Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose”. It also says the writer does not support the American president’s policies.

Many media observers drew parallels between Trump’s view that white nationalism is not a rising threat and his comments after a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 resulted in the death of a counter-protester. Trump said then there were “very fine people on both sides”.

On Friday, a Democratic presidential candidate, the New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, tweeted: “Time and time again, this president has embraced and emboldened white supremacists and instead of condemning racist terrorists, he covers for them. This isn’t normal or acceptable.”

Over a weekend in which he was otherwise prolific on Twitter, Trump did not comment further on the Christchurch attack, whether about coverage of his remarks or to express sympathy for victims.

Asked about the president’s silence, Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib, one of the first Muslim women in Congress, told CNN: “We need to be speaking up against this, and it has to start with him reiterating the importance of real information and data that says [white nationalism is] on the rise. You can’t just say it isn’t, when the facts say the complete opposite.

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

White House figures pushed back against coverage linking the gunman to Trump.

“The president is not a white supremacist,” the acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said on Fox News Sunday. “I’m not sure how many times we have to say that.”

He added: “I don’t think it’s fair to cast this person as a supporter of Donald Trump. Any more than it is to look at his eco-terrorist passages in that manifesto and align him with [Democratic House speaker] Nancy Pelosi or [New York representative Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez.

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“This was a disturbed individual, an evil person.”

Appearing on Fox News on Monday morning, the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said it was “predictable and outrageous” for the accused gunman to be connected to Trump.

“The president condemns hate and evil and bigotry, and we will continue to do so,” she said.

“This man came with pre-receipts, if you will. He put out a 70-page manifesto and I guess everybody scoured it, searched for Donald Trump’s name, and there it is one time. But he also said he aligns closely with the ideology of China. He said he’s not a conservative, he’s not a Nazi.

“I think he refers to himself as an eco-naturalist or an eco-fascist. But people should read the entire [manifesto] in its entirety.”