Presidential candidate Julian Castro (D) said on Tuesday evening that President Donald Trump “doesn’t belong as president” for “stoking hatred, bigotry, and division”that inspired the El Paso shooter to target Latinos.
Castro made his remarks on MSNBC after saying earlier in the week that Trump did not “really mean it” when Trump said the country must “condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.”
“You know, this president wants to talk about mental health. He wants to talk about video games, other things, doesn’t want to talk about the fact that we need common sense gun safety legislation,” Castro said on CNN this week. “And he never talks, in genuine terms, about the scourge of white supremacist ideology. He mouths the words… But you can tell just watching him that he didn’t mean it.”
Castro added that Trump had “no feeling in it, because he doesn’t really mean it.”
“And he has based his entire political career on fanning the flames of bigotry and division and hate,” he continued. “And I don’t think he’s going to go back now. I think that’s his political strategy for 2020, unfortunately.”
Trump on Monday said that “hate has no place in America.”
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated,” Trump said. “Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul.”