Durbin: ‘People Feel They Have License’ to Engage in Attacks Because of Rhetoric From the White House

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) stated that the Poway, CA synagogue shooting is domestic terrorism, and people feeling they have license to engage in such attacks “has really been fomented because of the rhetoric that we’re hearing from the White House.”

Durbin said, “This is domestic terrorism. Let’s call it for what it is. Had there been someone from the Middle East involved in this, someone with a green card involved in this, can you imagine the alerts that would have come out from the White House about the threats of terrorism to the United States? And yet this president does just the opposite. With a wink and a nod, he says to these nationalists and supremacists, you know, I know they’re just trying to protect the statues of Robert E. Lee.”

After co-host John Berman responded that Trump condemned the synagogue shooting, Durbin stated, “Of course he did. And he should have. But the point I’m getting to is, why do these people feel they have license now to attack synagogues, to attack [Sikh] temples, to attack churches across the United States? This has really been fomented because of the rhetoric that we’re hearing from the White House.”

Berman asked, “Do you think the president is giving them license?”

Durbin responded, “I think the president and his rhetoric is very loose, and as a consequence, people feel a permission slip to move forward in areas they never have before.”

(h/t WFB)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett