Donald Trump’s anti-migrant rhetoric has stoked racism in the United States and led directly to increased violence such as the mass shooting in El Paso on Saturday that left at least 20 people dead, according to Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, The Guardian reports.
As police investigated the possibility that the gun rampage in the Texas city was a hate crime aimed at Latino immigrants, O’Rourke accused the president of being a “racist” who was trying to make Americans “afraid” of migrants.
There was a link between Trump’s hostile comments about Muslims, migrants and people of colour to a rise in hate crimes, O’Rourke told CNN after cutting short campaigning in Nevada to return to El Paso, his hometown and a city he represented for six years in Congress.
Asked if the shooting was Trump’s fault for inflaming hatred, he said “yes”.
“We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you have a president who has called Mexicans rapists and criminals, though Mexican immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than people born in this country.
“He has tried to make us afraid of them … attempting to ban all Muslims from this country. The day that he signed that executive order the mosque in Victoria, Texas was burned to the ground. Those chants that we heard in Greenville North Carolina – ‘send her back’ – talking about fellow American citizens duly elected to represent their constituents in Congress …
“He is a racist. He is stoking racism in this country ... and it fundamentally changes the character of the country and leads to violence.”
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