President Trump has been busy talking—mostly about nonsense, as usual. Over the past few days, he’s spoken about his “military style” deportation force, he’s called distinguished media outlets “fake news” any number of times and has indicated that he won’t attend the White House Correspondents Dinner—making him the first president in 36 years to skip the event.
Yet, it’s been five days since two Indian men, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, (along with Ian Grillot, the good samaritan who tried to intervene) were shot in a bar in Olathe, Kansas, after the gunman repeatedly hurled ethnic slurs at them and yelled “Get out of my country.” And what has Trump’s response been? Not a thing. That’s right—he has said nothing. Absolutely nothing.
He hasn't tweeted. He hasn't released a statement. His press secretary hasn't raised the issue in briefings. The silence is deafening.
This attack comes less than a month after the Trump administration announced plans to focus efforts of the Countering Violent Extremism program (CVE) solely focused on Islamic extremism.
Countering violent Islamic extremism is all well and good and we know that ISIS remains a dangerous threat around the world that needs to be dealt with. But it’s very telling (and downright terrifying) when this administration decides to willfully ignore homegrown terrorism and basically give white supremacists a pass as a matter of policy.
The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.
Here’s how that works out: Islamic terrorism=bad. White terrorism=turn a blind eye or, better yet, fully acceptable in the eyes of this administration.
Lucy ... you got some ‘splainin to do!
Of course, the US president can’t condemn every act of gun violence that happens in the country. We have a serious problem with guns that we seem unwilling to reconcile and since about 93 people are killed by guns everyday in this country, if the president commented on every act of gun violence, he’d do almost nothing else all day long. But given that this president has had a special role in fomenting hate across the country, it would behoove him to speak out especially to the millions of Americans he has now put at risk.
Some people will still be reluctant to call what happened in Kansas terrorism. This is to be expected. When white men commit crimes such as these, the tendency is to blame everything else but racial hatred and bigotry. Whether we want to call it terrorism or something else (and let’s be clear, it is terrorism), we cannot ignore how this president has consistently instilled a climate of fear and hatred toward immigrants that has now reached fever pitch.
The shooter allegedly came to the bar that night to harm, kill, and instill fear in pursuit of his political aim. No one is asking who radicalized him or calling for a ban on middle-aged suburban white men until we "find out what's going on." He didn't need explosives, detailed plans, or the financial backing of a faraway clandestine cell. He had the tacit approval of an entire administration. This one-man army "took his country back." And the president said nothing.
Of course, in addition to encouraging racists to “take their country back,” Trump has had plenty to say when he’s been accused of anti-Semitism. He reminds us that he has a Jewish son-in-law and Jewish grandkids (this sounds a lot like “I can’t be a racist because I have black friends!”), and boasts that he is “the least racist person he knows” (which sadly, given who he is friends with, is probably true). But as synagogues are being threatened, Jewish gravestones are being defaced and overturned, mosques are being burned down, and hate crimes on the rise, this president and his white supremacist buddies are now oddly silent. And apparently their love for “law and order” seems to only apply to the inner cities where they think all blacks are living and to (brown) immigrants who they think are all undocumented. But putting “law and order” to use to stop these kinds of crimes from happening? Nothing.
White supremacy in US policy is nothing new but this is a reminder of what it looks like when friends of the Nazis and the KKK are allowed to work in the White House. It’s been said repeatedly for the last year and a half or so but is worth repeating again and again—this is not normal.