Friday, CNN “New Day” host John Berman and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) discussed the mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that has killed at least 49.
Berman danced around blaming President Donald Trump but repeatedly asked Kinzinger if the president’s language from his campaign and in office led to the terror attack on Muslims.
“I’m not putting this on President Trump. There is a one man who pulled the trigger here,” Berman said. “The person giving a sign of allegiance to President Trump is the killer here. He called him a symbol of white identity. The language he uses in this manifesto is all about invaders. It’s all about invaders, which is similar language to the killer at the synagogue in Pittsburgh language President Trump used in a campaign ad before the midterm election. The word invader means something to white supremacists around the world. Why?”
Kinzinger argued Trump’s actions cannot be “connected” to a decision made by “an evil man.”
“If this monster is hearing something in the word ‘invader’ and the president is using that word, can the president really not do anything?” Berman asked before pointing out the shooter used similar language to the white nationalists in Charlottesville, who the CNN host noted Trump called “very fine people.”
“I’m not defending all of the president’s language on this stuff,” Kinzinger replied. “[I]f you look at the Holocaust where six million Jews were killed, and Hitler basically brought a whole group of people into evil thinking to do what they did, that was way before President Trump. This hate for people, whether it’s a religion or whether it’s race has been going since the beginning of humanity. This disgusting animal is evil. And if President Trump’s language triggered him, that wasn’t President Trump triggering. It was just saying, though, this is a disgusting person who deserves, I think, to die.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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