this sunday domestic tropical storm in el paso, and another mass shooting overnight. in texas a 21-year-old man with violent hatred of hispanic immigrants opens fire with an assault rifle at a walmart in el paso on the mexican border. 20 dead in the act of domestic tomorrow. th -- tropicerrorism. >> i'm shocked. i'm scared. >> all i want to do is find my

mom. >> the gunman posting an ant immigrant tweet online. >> we believe our country should be a sanctuary to law-abiding citizens. not for criminal aliens. >> then overnight dayton, ohio nine more people gunned down. >> this is a safe part of downtown and it's a very popular destination for visitors. >> we'll get the latest on both stories from the scene. we'll talk to el paso's congresswoman, veronica escobar. we have julian castro of texas and cory booker. joining me are kasie hunt, elian that johnson, and former republican dpoempb of north carolina pat mckroi. it's sunday and this is a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news washington. the longest running show on

television history. this is a special edition of "meet the press."" with chuck todd. welcome to a tough sunday morning for america. the plague of mass shootings in the country is now reached an almost incomprehensible moment. twice in less than 24 hours we've seen massacres in two american cities with the death toll in the dozens. first in what appears to be an act of domestic terrorism, a 21-year-old gunman walked into a walmart with a military assault rifle and opened fire on shoppers. killing at least 20. wounding more than two dozen others. >> come on. let's go. >> hands up. >> as of this morning, the death toll in el paso puts this shooting among the ten worst in american history. here is how witnesses described that scene. >> kind of sounded like fireworks and they started coming closer together. >> i heard a lot of yelling.

there was cops with guns and saying get on your knees. >> it was full of blood and the mother came around the corner and she was shot in the chest. >> the killer who appears to be a white nationalist was captured and placed into custody. he posted an essay online referring to hispanic invaders and praised the murder of 51 people in mosques in christ church, new zealand. we asked whether president trump's racial resentment was a political issue for republicans. we have to ask whether the harsh words are actually inspiring violence. as if it weren't enough to comprehend, we woke up to the news that at least nine more people were killed in dayton, ohio. the shooter wearing body armor and a mask was killed by police. at these two horrible incidents to the shooting last week in gilroy, california and we're looking at the one of the most deadly weeks. more americans were killed in

mass shootings in the past 24 hours than american troops were killed in afghanistan in 2017 and 2018 combined. both stories covered this morning. we're going to begin with our justice correspondent here pete williams. so, pete, let me go in recent order here. we don't know much more about dayton. this happened past midnight beyond what we were able to just report there, is that correct? >> right. about 1:00 a.m. a popular bar in dayton in a section that was a popular night spot. one person heavily body armored with a mask and an assault style rifle with a high capacity magazine opens fire. but why and who he is not clear. >> certainly it was planning something or had planned it but we don't know motive beyond that. >> the planning seems pretty apparent because of how well he was prepared. we move to el paso. we learned a lot more about this

gunman as well as this creed he posted. how are authorities investigating this now? >> several things, first of all, they're searching his house and looking at his social media, they're talking to friends and family, they searched the house where he was staying apparently the night before the shooting. it's about an eight hour drive. he lived in allen, texas, which is a suburb of dallas and drove to el paso, it appears, that day. we're looking at the timeline. this essay that was posted online on an extremist website, it appears it was -- >> same website, by the way, that the shooter of the synagogue -- the white supremacist who did that one and the christ church. all posted on this same extremist website. 8chan. >> yeah. there's a real commonality there. it appears this thing was posted 19 minutes before the first 9-1-1 call comes from the shopping center in el paso. it appears at least some authorities became aware of it, but there wasn't anything they

could do. >> aware. aware of this posting before they knew it was leading to a shooting? >> right. the essay appears to "this attack." it seems like the person was planning an attack but didn't say where. he didn't even say el paso. there wasn't anything they could do about that. but the essay itself says he's been thinking about this. this is the 21-year-old suspect. many in law enforcement officials say they believe he's the person who wrote this essay. he said he's been planning it for about a month. >> any awareness this was somebody on the radar already? >> no. >> i believe it was on july 23rd, christopher wrai was asked about the threat of white nationalism. he seemed to indicate there's a threat through many of the incidents they have been investigating. >> in recent years, more people have been killed by or arrests made in connection with domestic terrorism than foreign

terrorism. it's been a real change since 9/11. we've gone in cycles. remember after the oklahoma city bombing, domestic terrorism. now it appears that domestic terrorism is at least as big a threat. coming back to what you said, there's a real commonality here. the internet speeded up the ability by which these people inspire each other. >> pete williams, it's going to be a busy sunday for you. thank you very much. joining me now on the phone is the mayor of dayton nan whaley. our condolences to the city of dayton this morning. what more can you tell us overnight? >> caller: well, thank you, chuck, for your condolences for our community. our community had a pretty tough year. this year already and what we're most amazed by for this incident was an under a minute, the police were able to really stop

the subject from -- the shooter from shooting. and i just really am amazed if they were not there, if they had not been on the site. how many -- we could have injures and the deaths in the hundreds. he had the ak assault rifle he was using with a high capacity magazine. >> it's startling how much carnage there was, considering he was able to be stopped in less than a minute. how prepared was this gunman? >> caller: this gunman was -- had body armor on. he was carrying, you know, a .223-caliber high capacity magazine and had additional magazines, as well. he was prepared to do some serious -- in our community. and, you know, obviously, with nine fatalities in under a minute, and, you know, over 20 people injured, i'm just

incredibly grateful to the police department that stopped this action. i mean, for us in dayton, this actually is the second tragedy to hit our city this summer. we had a tornado that tore through dayton in may and now we face this mass shooting. the difference is one of these tragedies was completely preventable and one of these tragedies happened now 250 times this year in our country. and yet nobody does anything about it. >> one last comment for elected officials in washington. i want to give you that forum. >> caller: i'm sorry? >> one last comment for elected officials in washington. one last comment you have for them about this incident. >> caller: my question to them is, you know, how many cities have to go through this before somebody changes the law? >> again, our condolences and hang in there dayton.

a wonderful city. joining me from el paso is veronica escobar. congressm congresswoman escobar, welcome to "meet the press." you were having a town hall meeting at the time of this incident and all of a sudden there was a moment of frenzy a bit. law enforcement officials informing you. tell me quickly about how you learned of this incident in real time there. >> so, chuck, we were having a town hall meeting and we were in the middle of our q & a when my staff approached me. i knew something was wrong. it felt unusual. and i was told about the active shooter, and that our law enforcement agents who were there to take care of us during the town hall and keep us safe there, they needed to rush over to the scene. and so we asked folks, we told them it was the end of the meeting that we needed everybody to calmly get home and stay home and my staff and i went to our

downtown office and continued to follow the news and get updates and it just get kepting workept and worse and worse. just like the mayor is grateful to our first responders, we're grateful to ours and the medical personnel who have been working through the night, chuck, to keep many of the victims alive. >> let me ask you this, we're learning more about the shooter in el paso. we're learning about a motive with him there. smuttily, you heard the mayor of dayton talk about their city, 250 when it comes to having one of these massacres happen on their watch. what do you see as your responsibility going forward assen elected official in washington, d.c., how should you confront this? >> my primary responsibility right now, chuck, is to be with the community. comfort the community. be of service to the community. i first want to say that el paso is one of the most

compassionate, generous, kind, warm, loving communities in the country. we're standing in front of united blood services where people have been pulling up to line up to give blood over an hour in advance. yesterday the line was wrapped around the buildings where donations were taking place. people had to be turned. with the family reunification center food had to be turned away because there was so much love and abundance. my primary responsibility is here with my community. as a legislator, all of us, as legislators, chuck, we have to talk about what is really happening. we have to speak the truth. >> what is that truth? >> the truth is, we have not just a gun epidemic in this country, but we have a hate epidemic in this country. >> veronica escobar, congresswoman from el paso.

it's been an incredibly rough 24 hours for you and your community. hang in there. we're all with you. >> thank you. thank you. joining me me from san antonio is democratic presidential candidate, former san antonio mayor, former housing secretary julian castro. welcome back to "meet the press." before we get into policy or anything like that. i know you have a lot of contacts in texas government. what more can you tell us about what you learned overnight. >> i think most of the facts we know at this point have been released. you know, there were about 20 individuals who were killed that this gunman was in his early 20s. a white male. and, of course, there's tremendous amount of grief and sadness and all of us are thinking about the families there in el paso who have been victimized. >> this is going to spark a couple of conversations.

one, on domestic terrorism and one on our gun culture. how do you -- what do you see here as sort of the what we need to start tackling? >> we need to tackle both of these things. unfortunately, as we've seen time after time, they're related. on the one hand, it's clear what we can do to cut down on the number of these incidents. we need common sense gun reform. this happened in texas, a state that has one of the highest rates of gun ownership. it has concealed carry, it has open carry. the shooter knew he would be walking into a store where a lot of people would be carrying a gun. that did not deter him. the answer is not more people with guns. the answer is to make sure that especially these semiautomatic weapons, these weapons of war are not out on the street and that we do things like universal background checks and red flag

laws so people who shouldn't have their hands on weapons don't get them in the first place. at the same time, there's a toxic brew right now in the united states. this is just one more example of that of white nationalism. the manifesto that apparently this shooter wrote that says that hispanics are taking over the state of texas and changing the country, this echoes the kind of language that our president encourages talking about invaders and that are, you know, others who talk about people bringing disease and changing the culture and this idea of replacement. there's this very toxic brew of white nationalism that is arising, and i know that doesn't reflect, by any means, the vast majority of americans, but

unfortunately, what we see is an increasing number of these incidents, these mass shooting incidents. so we need to pay attention to this. we need to do something about this. the fbi has identified this. the fbi director has said that this is a particular problem right now in the united states. >> right. the president of the united states has not. right. the president of the united states has not. right. we've had the director of the fbi acknowledged there's a rise in white nationalism that is tied to domestic terrorism. the president has not. is there any role, constructive role, he can play or because of how often he uses the language of racial resentment, does he not have the credibility to do anything to fix this problem? >> this president started his campaign in 2016 on a path of racial resentment and fanning

the flames of bigotry. that's how he believes he won in 2016. that's how he thinks he's going to win in 2020. unfortunately, he doesn't have any credibility anymore. you know, when he didn't step up right away and condemn the neo-nazis after charlottesville, you know, allowing that crowd for 13 seconds to chant "send her back" a couple of weeks ago. he doesn't have any credibility. but, you know, chuck, like all americans, i hope i still hope that this president will do what most presidents have done throughout our history, to realize we have to do everything we can to try to unite americans instead of fanning the flames of bigotry. >> do you worry that -- >> he has to be a big enough man and person in these moments to do that. >> george p bush called this white terrorism. do you think others need to use

that language in order to get the president to see this problem? >> i wish they would call it out. that they would be honest about what is happening here. because you know very well, and i know very well that if this had been somebody of the muslim faith that had committed this kind of act, immediately they would go to this idea that, as the president has, this bogus idea we have to keep all muslims out of the country, which is absolutely ridiculous. i think, instead, what we need to do is address the issue with common sense gun reform. also, address this toxic white supremacy that is brewing in the country. >> julian castro, it's a tough day for texas. a tough day for america. more people dying in the last 24 hours than troops in afghanistan die in the last two years, anyway. it's been a rough, rough weekend. thank you for coming on and sharing your news, sir. >> thank you. and a programming note, lester holt will anchor the nbc

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welcome back. joining me now is senator cory booker. welcome back to "meet the press." i know on the issue of guns, i think nobody has a more aggressive plan to try to tackle it than you. i want to set the policy prescriptions aside for a minute and how do you assess of what we're doing through in the last 24 hours, what we've seen particular i in el paso, sir. >> obviously, we all are grieving for the victims, for their families, and for the people who are going to have very painful, long road to recovery from gun violence. i just want to speak moral clarity now because i worry that we're having conversations that don't just focus on an

understanding that we are all responsible to each other in this country. we have moral bonds and fabric of our country. we have a president of the united states who is particularly responsible. my faith had the idea you reap what you sow. he's sowing seeds of hatred in this country. the harvest of hate violence we're seeing now lies at his feet. when you have the president from the highest moral office in our land talking about invasions and infestations and shithole countries. the kind of things that come out of his mouth. it harms the moral fabric of our nation. he's responsible. he's responsible and he has taken no action whatsoever to even condemn white supremacy. even when his own fbi is talking about this being sourcing major parts of our problem. we have a president who is responsible. who is not taking that responsibility who is doing nothing to address the deepening crisis in our country of this kind of violence.

>> okay. what can he do? you've outlined he might not have the credibility with many americans to do this. and, obviously, we're not going to get into whether he has the history of being able to somehow admit if he's wrong. i don't want to get into that. is there anything he can do, in your mind, that would at least begin a healing process here? >> so, chuck, it's not that he doesn't have the credibility. please understand what i'm saying. i'm saying the president is contributing to what is going on right now. he's sowing the seeds of hatred. what can he do here are two things that must be done. one, we need to deal with this issue of guns in our community. ease of access. the fact you can be on the terrorist no try list and fill a trunk full of weapons at a gun show from a casual seller. we have a uniquely american problem because of the uniquely american phenomena that anyone

who wants to kill somebody can easily use a loophole to find a weapon. as you've said, i have the boldest plan but my plan is built based upon evidence. if you need a license to drive a car in this country, you should have a license to buy a gun and possess it. we know that states have done that have dropped -- dramatically dropped the levels of violence. we have patchwork of these laws in this country. someone who can't get a gun in california shoot over to another state. there are specific things we should be doing that are common sense. again, the moral fabric of our nation, we have a country right now that is boiling over in hate. we have seen this before. my parents grew up in a generation that tried to overcome lynchings and violence against african-americans. bombings of churches of a little girls. and we came together black and white, christian, jewish, and did something about this. but we have a president that is

not uncapable of showing that kind of love, but he's stoking through his language hate. he's responsible for the crisis in our country and is doing nothing to actually solve it. it's unacceptable. >> there is one republican that i know of calling this white terrorism. it's george pea bush. if the president doesn't accept the responsibility that you believe he has, what is your -- what would you like the other elected republicans to do? >> well, to me, martin luther king said tell consequently. what we have to repent for is the encyclical of words but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. there is a complicity in the president's hatred that undermines the goodness and the decency of americans regardless of what party. to say nothing in a time of rising hatred.

it's not enough to say that i'm not a hate monger myself. if you are not actively working against hate, calling it out, you are come police it in what is going on. and so this is a moral moment in america. like we have seen before where demagogues and fear amongers, hate amongers have risen. we need moral clarity and healing and love in our nation. we need leaders that are capable of doing that. >> senator cory booker, we booked you before the incidents. we were going to have a longer conversation about the campaign in general. but i appreciate your coming on and sharing your views on t [farmers bell] (burke) at farmers insurance, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "three-ring fender bender." (clown 1) sorry about that... (clown 2) apologies. (clown 1) ...didn't mean it. (clown 3) whoops. (stilts) sorry! (clowns) we're sorry! (scary) hey, we're sorry! [man screams] [scary screams] (burke) quite the circus. but we covered it.

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