众议院少数党党鞭史蒂夫·斯卡利斯本周末为唐纳德·特朗普辩护，批评者称总统煽动性的种族言论是埃尔帕索枪击案的罪魁祸首。
在哥伦比亚广播公司的采访中面向国家周日，主持人玛格丽特·布伦南(Margaret Brennan)问国会议员，他是否担心特朗普用来形容美国移民的贬义词
“在埃尔帕索事件中，这是这个国家有史以来最大的反拉丁袭击。凶手说他去了一个边境城镇杀害墨西哥人。鉴于这种特殊的背景，你能理解总统在提到移民是“入侵这个国家”时对语言的敏感性吗？布伦南问斯卡利斯。
斯卡利斯首先谴责枪手，然后为特朗普辩护。
“当你看到发生的事情时，我心都碎了，”国会议员说。“无论是种族主义者，还是憎恨某个种族群体的人，都没有地方可去。这种攻击和基于种族的攻击是没有立足之地的。”
斯卡利斯说:“但试图把责任推给别人，我认为这是非常危险的，因为总统对那起枪击事件不再负责，因为你的下一位客人伯尼·桑德斯对我的枪击事件负责。”。枪手应该对此负责。”
这位共和党人的言论是指2017年6月弗吉尼亚州亚历山大市一年一度的国会慈善棒球比赛练习期间发生的枪击事件。极端左翼枪手詹姆斯·霍奇金森(James Hodgkinson)射杀了斯卡利斯、说客马特·米卡、国会助理扎克·巴特和美国国会警官克里斯托·格林纳。据报道，枪手是桑德斯2016年总统竞选的前志愿者。
霍奇金森在与当局约十分钟的枪战中受了致命伤，并在事发当天死于乔治华盛顿大学医院。据报道，Mika和Scalise在袭击后被送往附近医院接受治疗和手术。
“就在几天前，总统非常清楚，没有这个地方。他公开反对种族主义，公开反对这种攻击，”斯卡利斯继续说道，然后谴责2020年民主党候选人指责特朗普对埃尔帕索枪击案负责。
这位国会议员说，这些总统候选人“发表了一些最荒谬的声明”。“乔·拜登刚刚说，帕克兰的孩子们来见他时，他是副总统。他不是副总统。”
“我知道他们正在竞选总统，他们可能不喜欢唐纳德·特朗普的观点，但停止这种对责任人以外的人的荒谬指责，”他补充道。
特朗普对上周埃尔帕索和代顿枪击案的回应是，宣布“仇恨在我们国家没有立足之地”，然后发誓他的政府将“处理好它”，但没有提供任何解决枪支暴力的具体计划。
民主党人和共和党人争论特朗普关于移民的煽动性言论是否助长了埃尔帕索枪击案中的仇恨和暴力。前德克萨斯州国会议员贝托·奥洛克说，总统“是一个种族主义者，他在这个国家煽动种族主义”说上周末。“这不仅冒犯了我们的感情，还从根本上改变了这个国家的性格，导致了暴力。”
共和党众议员史蒂夫·斯卡利斯周日为特朗普辩护，称他的种族言论应对埃尔帕索枪击案负责。哥伦比亚广播公司/截屏
CONGRESSMAN STEVE SCALISE SAYS TRUMP ISN'T RESPONSIBLE FOR EL PASO SHOOTING, JUST LIKE BERNIE SANDERS WASN'T FOR HIS
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise this weekend defended Donald Trump from critics that allege the president's inflammatory racial rhetoric is to blame for the El Paso shooting.
During an interview on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, host Margaret Brennan asked the congressman whether he is concerned about the derogatory language Trump uses to describe immigrants in the U.S.
"In the case of El Paso, it is the largest anti-Latina attack that this country has ever seen. The killer said that he went to a border town to kill Mexicans. Given this particular context, can you understand the sensitivity to language used by the president when he refers to migrants as 'invading this country'?" Brennan asked Scalise.
Scalise began his response by denouncing the shooter, before then defending Trump.
"My heart breaks when you see what happened," the congressman said. "There's no place for it, whether it's somebody that's racist, that hates a certain ethnic group. There's no place for those kind of attacks and attacking people based on their ethnicity."
"But to try to assign blame to somebody else I think is a very slippery slope, because the president's no more responsible for that shooting, as your next guest, Bernie Sanders, is for my shooting," Scalise said, adding that he "is not responsible. The shooter is responsible."
.@SteveScalise says it’s a “slippery slope†to blame @realDonaldTrump's rhetoric for the El Paso shooting: "The president's no more responsible for that shooting as your next guest, Bernie Sanders, is for my shooting.†pic.twitter.com/ef112WRS4S
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 11, 2019
The Republican's remarks were in reference to a shooting that took place during a practise session in June, 2017 for the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity in Alexandria, Virginia. James Hodgkinson, an extreme left-wing gunman, shot Scalise, lobbyist Matt Mika, congressional aide Zack Barth and U.S. Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner. The shooter was reportedly a former volunteer for Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.
Hodgkinson was fatally wounded during a roughly ten-minute shootout with authorities and died at the George Washington University Hospital on the same day as the incident. Mika and Scalise were reportedly transported to nearby hospitals after the attack for treatment and surgery.
"The president was very clear just the other day that there's no place for this. He spoke out against racism, he spoke out against these kind of attacks," Scalise continued, before then condemning some 2020 Democratic candidates for blaming Trump for the El Paso shooting.
These presidential candidates "made some of the most ridiculous statements," the congressman said. "Joe Biden just said that he was vice president when the Parkland kids came and met with him. He wasn't vice president."
"I know they're running for president and they may not like Donald Trump's views but stop this ridiculous assessment of blame to somebody other than the person who is responsible," he added.
Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton shootings last week by declaring that "hate has no place in our country," before vowing that his administration would "take care of it," without offering any concrete plans to address gun violence.
Democrats and Republicans have sparred over whether Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants had encouraged the hate and violence in the El Paso shooting. The president "is a racist and he stokes racism in this country," former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke said last weekend. "And it does not just offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence."
