Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who told MSNBC on Tuesday that Americans needed to “kill and confront” the so-called “MAGA Republicans,” blamed then-President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for inciting the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in 2019.
In August 2019, a gunman with radical anti-immigrant views opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, killing 23 and wounding 23 others. He claimed he was radicalized before Trump emerged into politics, and explicitly disavowed Trump as his inspiration.
Nevertheless, Ryan blamed Trump’s rhetoric for inspiring the shooting, telling Neil Cavuto of Fox News: “I believe that the president is most certainly creating an environment here where people like this kid in El Paso drive ten hours to go kill Mexicans, kill people of color.” Asked by Cavuto whether Ryan blamed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for the fact that a Bernie Sanders supporter carried out a mass shooting against Republicans at baseball practice in 2017, Ryan rejected the parallel.
When Cavuto argued that Ryan was taking things too far by blaming Trump, Ryan defended his position. Via Mediaite:
“You’re blaming his language on these shootings,” Cavuto said. “That’s going an extra mile, don’t you think?”
Ryan responded, “Look, I’m saying he has created an environment in the United States that is absolutely toxic.”
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“I’m not taking a leap. I’m telling it like it is,” Ryan said. “I’m telling you exactly how I see it. I’m sorry it’s the case and I’m sorry it may cut against somebody’s political beliefs and they may agree with Trump’s political philosophy, which is fine. If there is one, it’s fine. I’m talking about him creating an environment of intolerance in the United States. Instead of ‘out of many one,’ He divides us. You know it and everybody else that pays a little bit of attention understands that this is his M.O. This is what he does.”
On Tuesday, Ryan told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that the “exhausted majority” of Americans needed to “kill and confront” the extremist Republican movement. He also tried to claim that he was willing to work with people across the political aisle.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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