In a special report on MSNBC on Monday night, Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Brian Williams told a truth that very few in the media have been willing to say so plainly: The El Paso terrorist’s manifesto is essentially a xerox copy of Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.
“Cut and paste dialogue,” Williams said, as Wallace explained how similar the disturbing manifesto is to Trump’s language at his rallies and on his Twitter page.
“If I were an algorithm and I were looking for intersections between the language in the manifesto from the killer in El Paso and Donald Trump’s Twitter feed or Donald Trump’s MAGA rallies, I’d be going ding ding ding ding ding,” Wallace said. “They’re undeniable and they have to be part of the conversation.”
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An MSNBC special report discusses the alarming similarity between the El Paso killer’s manifesto and Donald Trump’s rhetoric. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/RVcjDS4sLE
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) August 6, 2019
Nicolle Wallace said:
You talked about the language of the manifesto. I’ll just say it, the elephant in the room is the intersection of the killer’s manifesto, language of an invasion from Mexicans, and the person who happens to be the American president right now. … If I were an algorithm, you know metadata was one of the tools that we had. I worked in the White House on 9/11, and I’ll just say it: All of the policies that were put in place were controversial, we don’t need to debate them tonight. But one of the tools was the use of metadata. It looked for intersections between phone numbers, conversations, speech. If I were an algorithm and I were looking for intersections between the language in the manifesto from the killer in el Paso and Donald Trump’s Twitter feed or Donald Trump’s MAGA rallies, I’d be going, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. They’re undeniable and they have to be part of the conversation.
Trump is elevating violent white extremists
Before Donald Trump hit the political scene, the type of rhetoric we saw in the El Paso shooter’s manifesto used to be reserved for the most extreme, isolated parts of society and the internet.
Now, it can be heard from behind the presidential seal – and violent white extremists are paying attention. They are emboldened to take up arms against a non-existent “invasion” of immigrants that Trump keeps talking about.
It should surprise nobody that the rise of white nationalist terrorism seems to coincide with the political rise of Donald Trump.
What happened in El Paso over the weekend is the latest evidence that this president’s racist rhetoric is a clear and present danger to the United States of America.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.