Comey urges Trump to take a stand against racism after mass shootings

Former FBI Director James Comey, a vocal Trump critic, on Sunday called on President Trump to take a public stand against racism in a new op-ed, accusing him of stirring up racism for “political benefit.”

“America has long had a radioactive racist soup in the center of our national life. Donald Trump thinks he is stirring it for political benefit,” Comey wrote in The New York Times. “He’s actually doing something more dangerous.”

Comey alleged that the gunman who killed 20 people in a shooting in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday was in part inspired by Trump’s comments on Hispanic immigrants. The shooter wrote a manifesto that was reportedly posted online filled with racist comments about Hispanic people.

{mosads}“According to a ‘manifesto’ widely attributed to him, the Texas terrorist who killed at least 20 people in El Paso on Saturday wasn’t directly motivated by Donald Trump. But he is a horrific example of what can happen when the control rods are lifted,” Comey said.

“Every American president, knowing what lies deep within our country, bears a unique responsibility to say loudly and consistently that white supremacy is illegitimate, that encouraging a politics of racial resentment can spawn violence, and that violence aimed at people by virtue of their skin color is terrorism,” he continued.

Comey also criticized Trump for comments that critics have called racist. Comey pointed to U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, whom Trump attacked for his Mexican heritage; his comments about NFL players kneeling during the national anthem and his attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color, among other incidents. 

“With each racist assault — on a judge, an athlete, a country, a member of Congress, or a city — and with each kind word for ‘very fine people on both sides,’ our president allows the stew to boil and radiate more dangerously,” Comey said.

Comey also said Trump “owes” the American people more than “condolences sent via Twitter.” Trump tweeted that the shooting in El Paso was “tragic” and “an act of cowardice” Saturday, and he ordered flags at federal government buildings to be lowered to half-staff in honor of the victims of the shooting in El Paso and the Sunday shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

“You hold the biggest control rod of all. You must push it back into place, for all our sakes. The vast majority of Americans believe the core ideals of our founding documents and we expect our culture to reflect those ideals. Show us you believe in them, too,” Comey said.

Late last month, Trump was criticized for his comments attacking Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who represents parts of Baltimore. Trump called Cummings’s district “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” — comments that were widely decried as racist.

Trump also drew ire last month for his attacks on a group of four minority congresswomen: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). The president repeatedly told the progressive congresswomen to “go back” to where they came from, comments that were also criticized as racist and xenophobic. At a campaign rally in North Carolina, a crowd also chanted “send her back” as Trump attacked Omar, who is Somali American.