He wants to sound sincere. I have no doubt he is. Yet, he gets his jabs in anyway, in that loquacious and insincere way of his. It takes him hundreds of words to express a simple thought. He should have stopped after the first sentence. But he didn't. Everything that follows is pure politics. Just pay attention:
Michelle and I grieve with all the families in El Paso and Dayton who endured these latest mass shooting. Even if the details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true.
First, no other nation in Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States. No other developed nation tolerates the levels of gun violence that we do. Every time this happens, we're told that tougher fun laws won't stop all murders; that they won't stop every deranged individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places. But the evidence shows that they can stop some killings. They can save some families from heartbreak. We are not helpless here. And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.
Second, while the motivations behind these shootings may not yet be fully know, there are indications that the El Paso shooting follows a dangerous trend: troubled individuals who embrace racist ideologies and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy. Like the followers of ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, these individuals may act alone, but they've been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the internet. That means that both law law enforcement agencies and internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups.
But just as important, all of us have to send a clarion call and behave with the values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of our democracy. We should soundly reject the language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people. Such language isn't new -- it's been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history, here in America and around the world. It is at the root of slavery and Jim Crow, the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. It has no place in our politics or our public life. And it's time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much -- clearly and unequivocally.
Oy, veh. What a self-righteous windbag. I almost forgot.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a businessman, not a politician. He has little interest in BS and even less in verbal flatulence. He cuts straight through the subterfuge. His response is direct, terse and unambiguous:
Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook? President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign. Not many people said Obama is out of control. Mass shootings were happening before the President (i.e. Donald Trump) even thought about running for Pres." @kilmeade. @foxand friends.
Ouch! Now that will leave a mark.
Obama had best stick to public grieving and steer clear of political bloviations. Otherwise, a la Trump, he gets his head handed to him on a platter. It's a New York kind of thing. Obama is out of his league.
We now have a President who speaks truth to BS. It's been a long time coming. Maybe not since Andrew Jackson -- a couple hundred years.
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