(let's not forget all the GOP candidates who pounded these points home, based on false information like some of our esteemed posters)
On Friday, a gunman killed three at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, telling police that the clinic was selling body parts of fetuses.
Last Monday, gunmen opened fire on Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, the FBI reports an upturn in threats on mosques and Muslims in the United States.
These are all forms of domestic terrorism.
The inflammatory rhetoric of certain presidential candidates hasn’t helped. Carly Fiorina continues to allege, despite evidence to the contrary, that Planned Parenthood is selling body parts of fetuses.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, says Muslim-Americans should be tracked, undocumented workers rounded up, and that a Black Lives Matter protester at his rally “maybe deserved to be roughed up.” Last August, when a man arrested for beating a homeless Latin man told police "Donald Trump was right — all these illegals need to be deported," Trump didn’t condemn the violence. Instead he said “people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again.”
I’m not suggesting Trump, Fiorina, or any other presidential candidates are directly to blame for the hate crimes erupting across America. But they have fanned the flames of hate. And that is despicable.
What do you think?
Robert Reich
On Friday, a gunman killed three at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, telling police that the clinic was selling body parts of fetuses.
Last Monday, gunmen opened fire on Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, the FBI reports an upturn in threats on mosques and Muslims in the United States.
These are all forms of domestic terrorism.
The inflammatory rhetoric of certain presidential candidates hasn’t helped. Carly Fiorina continues to allege, despite evidence to the contrary, that Planned Parenthood is selling body parts of fetuses.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, says Muslim-Americans should be tracked, undocumented workers rounded up, and that a Black Lives Matter protester at his rally “maybe deserved to be roughed up.” Last August, when a man arrested for beating a homeless Latin man told police "Donald Trump was right — all these illegals need to be deported," Trump didn’t condemn the violence. Instead he said “people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again.”
I’m not suggesting Trump, Fiorina, or any other presidential candidates are directly to blame for the hate crimes erupting across America. But they have fanned the flames of hate. And that is despicable.
What do you think?
Robert Reich
