Matthew Dowd: Trump Has Helped ‘Foment’ Tribalism in White National Supremacists

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” chief Bush 2004 presidential campaign strategist and network political analyst Matthew Dowd said President Donald Trump was fomenting tribalism in white national supremacists.

Dowd said, “I think much of it has been predictable. I’ll quote the philosopher Yoda who said, ‘The path to the dark side is fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering.’ I think we’re at a moment in time where we have to speak clearly and calmly in the times we’re in. I think our leaders and I would put specific responsibility on the president. He has an obligation to rid us of much of this tribalism. I think what he’s done over the course of the last few years is help foment this. I’m not saying he’s not responsible for what happened in Pittsburgh. He’s not responsible for the bombs that were sent. He’s not responsible for what happened at the supermarket. But all of those have a commonality. A white national supremacist shot two blacks at a supermarket. A white national supremacist sent 17 IED’s across the country to Democratic leaders. A white national supremacist just killed 11 Jewish people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. In the course of that, I think the president has not allocated resources to deal with it in the right way, and he also has not spoken in the right way in the course of this that diminished hate.”

He continued, “This is not a both sides moment. Anybody that acts like this is a both sides moment — the president has a special responsibility at times like this.”

He added, “Let’s not forget that what happened in Pittsburgh was because this man was radicalized because of the language of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He was mad that refugees and immigrants were given what he considered special privileges. Let’s also not forget within this week the president proudly claimed himself a nationalist and proudly castigated the immigrants, the struggling families, the refuges that are walking miles and miles.”

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