Beto O'Rourke tells CNN's Jake Tapper he thinks Trump is a white nationalist following shootings
Back-to-back mass shootings this weekend in El Paso and Dayton have inspired new calls for increased gun regulations, but it's not just the NRA and the Second Amendment that have drawn people's ire.
Several people have placed the blame on President Trump's rhetoric, especially in reference to the El Paso shooting. The suspected gunman, a 21-year-old white male named Patrick Crusius, may have written an online manifesto that described an attack on the border city in response to "the Hispanic invasion of Texas." Trump has spoken in similar terms about the influx of migrants at the southern border, which his administration is trying to curb through construction of a border wall and government raids.
Presidential candidates Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), who hails from El Paso, said Trump was responsible for the incidents, and O'Rourke said that he believes Trump is a white nationalist.
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Conservative analysts haven't shied away from questioning whether Trump's language played a role in the shootings, either.
Trump condemned the shooting, but did not make any mention of the alleged manifesto. Following a mass shooting in New Zealand in March, which was carried out by a white supremacist, Trump said only a small group of people were white nationalists.
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