amy: from new york this is democracy now! >> this is disgusting, intolerable. it is not texan. wewe are going to aggressively prosecute both as a capital murder and a hate crime which is exactly what it appears to be. amy: it was a deadly weekend in america. over the span of 13 hours the country was shaken by two mass shootings. an anti-immigrant gunman

--te supremacist gunman anti-immigrant white supremacist gunman shot dead 20 people in croed wal-l-mart in el pasaso, texas. 13 hoursrs later a gunman whoo had a historory of threatening women n shot dead 9 people including his owown sister outside a bar inin dayton , ohio. most of the victctims were african-american. esident trtrump addressed the killings on sunday but did not mention gunsns, mestic terror or whihi nationalism in his remksks. on the campaign n trail many democrats say the president is partly to blame for what happened in el paso. >> the president's language, his rhetoric has produced the kinds of hate crimes we saw in el paso yesterday but have been seeing across this country has been on the rise for each of the last thrhree years. amy: we will go o to el paso for response to saturday's tragedy. and we will speak to a former fbi agent about how

the government has failed to confront growing white nationalist violence. and we will look at how this weekend's mass shooting will impact the debate over guns in america as the nra implodes. all of thahat andd morore coming up. this is democracy now! democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. at least 29 people were killed as two mass murders shook the country over the weekend. in el paso, texas a gunman -- a white supremacist gunman opened fire at a walmart near a mall saturday. the mass murderer is believed to be patrick crusius, a 21-year-old white man who is now in police custody. the gunman posted a racist, antiti-immigrant manifesto online in which he said he he was quote defending my , country from cultural and ethnic replacementntrought invasion,", echoing

the line used by trump to describe migrants. the el paso attack came just days after another whitete male shooter attacked the gilroyoy garlic fefestival in california, killing three people including a six-year-old boy. just before that shooting the gunman promoted an anti-immigrant manifesto online. it also came days after a walmart worker in mississippi shot and killed two fellow employees and wounded 2 others. calalls for walmart to stop selling guns and ammuninition. the el paso massacre is being treated as an act of domestic terrorism. this is u.s. attorney john bash.. >> the key factor here is it appears to be an intent to coerce or intimidate a certain population. it certainly appears to be intended to intimidate. we are treating it as a domestic terrorism case. amy: el paso's district

attorney said he is charging the shooter with capital murder, which carries a a possible death penalty. -- carries a possible death penalty. he could also face federal hate crime charges which also can result in a capital punishment sentence. fredrick brennan, the founder of the website 8chan, has called for his site to be shut down following the events in el paso. the shooter posted about the attack shortly before it happened on an 8 chan message board. at least 3 recent mass shootings have been announced on the site, including the massacre at 2 mosques in christchurch new zealand, that killed 50 muslims in march. provideretwork drop the site following the shooting. mexico has called the mass killing an act of terrorism against mexicans and mexican president andres manuel lopez obrador, who said seven mexican nationals werere among the 20 killed, saidid mexico is c considering measures t to protect mexicans who are in the u.s.

he also said mexico may also charge the shooter in mexican courts. u.s. democratic lawmakers are calling for the senate to return from recess to vote on two gun safety bills recently passed in the house. hours after el paso's horrific attttack, in the earlyours of susunday morning gunman opepened fire , a withth a high calibe rifle ououtside a bar in a popular downtown entertaiainment diststrict in dayton, ohohio, killing nine people and wounding g dozens of others, all in under a minunute. police killed the suspecect at the scene. he was identified as 24-year-old white male connor betts. the victims were mostly in -- he has a history of threatenening women and he had a hit list and a rate list in high school. the victims were mostly in their 20's and 30's and many

of them were african-american. one of the victims, megan betts, was the sister of the gunman. at a vigil sunday, crowds interrupted a speech by ohio's republican governor mike dewine with shouts of make a change and do something. >> of course as governor i am here representing all the people in the state of ohio. >> do something. >> we are here tonight. [chanting and shouting] >> do something. >> you have the power to make a change. amy: also on sunday, the captain of the philadelphia union soccer team captain alejandro bedoya grabbed a field microphone after he scored a goal and demanded congress take action following the shootings. >> congress, do something now. he said congress do

something now, and gun violence -- end gun violence. he lived just 15 minutes from the parkland massacre in florida. in hong kong, a general strike has paralyzed the city's transportation and shut down many businesses and large parts of the service industry as pro-democracy protesters escalate their demands. hundreds of flights have also been cancelled. demonstrators took to the streets over the weekend, blocking major roads with riot police firing tear gas at crowds and arresting at least 80 people. the popular uprising started 9 weeks ago to demand the withdrawal of an extradition bill that would have sent people from hong kong to mainland china to face charges, but demands quickly grew for the resignation of hong kong's leader carrie lam, an investigation into violence against demonstrators, and pro-independence reforms. carrie lam warned hong kong

is being pushed to the verge of a very dangerous situation. india announced it is revoking kashmir's special status as tensions with pakistan over the disputed region have been rising over recent days. the move, which is expected to be challengnged in n court, means hindu indians from outside kashmir could start buying land and settling in the region, among otheher actions that will shift the demographic makeup of the indian-administered, muslim-majority state. critics and mamany kashmiris say this would threaten the state's autonomy, further consolidating it into indian rule. india's governing bj party promised during election campaigning this year that it would rescind kashmir's special status. india's home minister also said it would split the ststate into two federally ruled territories. india has sent 10,000 additional troops to the region over the past week and shut down schools, evacuated tourists, and cut off internet access. kashmir leaders have also been placed under house ararrest. in february, tensisions between india and pakistan ratcheted up over the region. india carried out airstrikes

inside pakistan following an attack against indian soldiers in kashmir by a militant separatist group based in pakistan. pakistan's prime minister imran khan, who recently met with trump at the white house, tweeted, president trump offered to mediate on kashmir. this is the time to do so as situation deteriorates there. this has the potential to blow up into a regional crisis. iran said sunday it seized another foreign oil tanker. the revolutionary guard said that the vessel was from iraq and carrying smuggled diesel fuel through the persian gulf. iraq has denied the accusation, saying it does not export diesel to the international market. this is the third vessel seized by iran in recent weeks, including the british stena impero, which is still being held after it was captured in the strait of hormuz last month. that followed britain's seizure of an iranian tanker off the coast of gibraltar, which britain accused of breaching international sanctions.

in more news from iran, government officials confirmed reports that iran turned down n an invitation for foreign minister mohammad javad zarif to visit the white house for talks last month. the invitation preceded the imposition of u.s. sanctions on zarif, whom the trump administration branded a propaganda minister. iran has accused the u.s. of shutting down any possibility for talks between the two countries by sanctioning its top diplomat. in russia, at least 800 people were arrested saturday as protesters took to the streets of moscow again to call out the barring of opposition candidates in upcoming city council elections. videos of police beating protesters with batons spread on social media over the weekend. police also reportedly made arrests before the protests even started. meanwhile, opposition leader alexei navalny, who was arrested last month ahead of mass protests, is being

investigated for money-laundering. navalny's anti-corruption group has worked to expose top russian officials. he was hospitalized last weekend, when his doctor said navalny appeared to have symptoms of poisoning, but navalny has since been returned to jail. sudan's transitional military council and leaders from the protest movovement signed a conststitutional declaration n sunday, thatat they s say will usher in a transition to civilian rule. months of unrest and deadly protests have followed the april overthrow of sudan's former authoritarian president omar al-bashir after a mass popular uprising. the 2 sides agreed to a power-sharing deal last month but talks have been repeatedly deraileled due to violent incidents including most recently a deadly attack by security forces on teenage students protestingg military rule. a new prime minister will be -- journal and press freedom advocates are calling for the mexican president -- in

mexico, journalists and press freedom advocates are calling for the government of andres manuel lopez obrador to take meaningful action after 3 more journalists were killed, all within a week. jorge ruiz vazquez, was fatally shot in his home in the state of veracruz friday, just days before he was to testify about death threats he said originated from the mayor of his town. he accused the mayor of corruption last year. in the state of guerrero, edgar alberto nava, who published local stories on a facebook page, was also shot dead on friday. nava reported on local government, as well as crime. and journalist rogelio barragan was found dead in the trunk of a car earlier last week, in the state of morelos. both barragan and nava cited safety concerns due to their work. the 3 recent murders brings -- murders bring the total number of journalists killed in mexico this year to 10. reporters without borders calls mexico one of world's deadliest countries for the media. in puerto rico, pedro pierluisi was sworn in as the new governor after his disgraced predecessor ricardo rossello officially stepped down friday,

following weeks of mass protests. however the senate has not yet voted to approve pierluisi as the new governor, leading many puerto ricans to question his legitimacy. >> what he did was a coup d'etat. he understands he is not the governor himself and that he will have to go to the senate. itit is the jujustice secretary's job, someone who has s to swear in on the dark over there. he obviously knows he is not doing things properly. amy: pierluisi previously served as puerto rico's resident commissioner or non-voting representative in congress from 2009 to 2017. he was one of the key adadvocas s behind thehe creation of the puerto rico oversight, management, and economic stability actct known asas promesa which created an unelected, federally appointed control board with sweeping powers to run puerto rico's economy.

san juan mayor carmen yulin cruz is filing a lawsuit today over pierluisi's appointment as governor. u.s. federal prosecutors have accused honduran president juan orlando hernandez of conspiring with his brother and other top political figures to protect drugug traffickers in exchange for campaign contributions. tony hernandez, the president's brother, was ararrested last year in ththe united states for drug trafficking and weapon offenses. former president porfirio lobo, who came to power following a u.s.-backed coup in 2009, is also accused of participating in the scheme. prosecutors say president hernandez used $1.5 million in drug trafficking money to help him win the 2013 presidency. juan orlando hernandez has denied the accusations. mass protests have been taking place for months against the hernandez government, which hondurans say is ruled by corruption, as well as his plans to privatize healthcare, pensions and education.

a 32-yeaear-old man frorom el salvador d died thursday at a new mexico immmmigration jail. marvin antonio gonzalez hahad traveled to the united states with his young daughter. his daughter is now being held by u.s. immigration authorities. the cause of death has yet toto be determined. this is antonio gonzalez's father, speaking in el salvador. >> he said to go could no longer stand the poverty -- he said he wanted to go, that he could no longer stand the poverty. amy: at least 15 asylum-seekers have died while in u.s. custody since september r of lasast year, seven of them werere children. president trump said friday he no longer would nominate texas congressmember john ratcliffe to replace dan coats as director of national intelligence. trump blamed the quote, lamestream media for treating ratcliffe unfairly as reports emerged over the past week of bipartisan concerns over his qualifications for the role, namely that he exaggerated

his accomplishments as a former federal prosecutor in east texas, claiming he had lots of experience jailing terrorisists and helping formm george w. . bus's counterterrorism policy. according to former coworkers, there were no majojor nationonal security prosecutions during hihis tenure. meanwhile, trump is reportedly planning to block deputy director of national intelligence sue gordon from becoming acting director when dan coats steps down later this month, possibly by ousting her from her current position. critics say the move would fall within the administration's pattern of prioritizing political picks over careeeer staffers. and in new york city, an administrative judge for the new york police department recommended friday that daniel pantaleo, the officer who killed eric garner by using an illegal chokehold in 2014, be fired. pantaleo held garner, an unarmed african-american man, in the chokehold until he dropped to the ground,

despite gasping "i can't breathe" 11 times. pantaleo was suspended following the recommendation but nypd commissioner james o'neill will make the final decision on whether or not to fire him. pantaleo has remained on the police force on desk duty since the killing. a new york grand jury decided in 2014 not to charge him and last month, the justice department said he would also not face federal charges. eric garner's daughter, emerald garner snipes, spoke out after the judge's recommendation was made public. >> this has been a long battle. five years too long and finally, somebody has saidd that there is some information that this cop has done something wrong. we waited five years. commissioner o'neill, fire him. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'i'm amy gogoodman.

it wasas a deadly weekend in america. over the span of 13 hours the country was shaken by -- was rocked by two mass shootings. at around 10:30 on saturday morning a heavily armed gunman opened fire inside a crowded walmart in el paso , texas. authorities say 20 people were shot dead. the victims were predominately latino, including several mexican nationals. at least two d dozen peoplee werere injured. o onn jt after 1:00 a.m. sunday, a gugunman in dayton, ohio shot dead 9 people outside a a bar in the city' historic oregon districtct. the dead included the gunman's own sister. most of f the deaeawere african-americans.s. police are stillll investigating the motive of gunman, a white male identified as connor betts. according to news reports the 24-year-old had been suspended from high school after compiling lists of

girls he wanted to rape and kill. meanwhile federal authorities are treating the el paso attack as an act of dodomestic terrorism. ththe suspected el paso gunman has been identified as a 21-year-old white male named patrick crusius who lived 600 miles away in a suburb of dallas. shortly before the attack in el paso, the gunman posted an anti-immigrant manifesto on the far-right message board 8chan which had also been used by the gunman who attacked two mosques in new zealand and killed 50 muslims and the gunman who attacked a san diego synagogue. on sunday the founder of 8chan called for the site to be taken down. some of the language in the manifesto echoed remarks by president trump including his use of the word invasion to describe immigrants crossing the southern border. on sunday president trump briefly spoke about the shootings in el paso and dayton but did not refer to guns, domestic terrorism or

white nationalism in his remarks. president trump is scheduled to address the nation today at 10:00 a.m. on the presidential campaign trail, multiple democratic candidates linked the shooting in el paso to trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric. former congressman beto o'rourke, who is from el paso, accused trump of stoking racism. south bend mayor pete buttigieg said trump is not helping to stop what he described as a quote lethal, violent, white nationalist terrorism. meanwhile senator bernie sanders called on senate majority leader mitch mcconnell to hold a special session of the senate to pass a gun safety bill. the el paso attack came just days after a white male shooter attacked the gilroy garlic festival in california killing three people. the gunman in gilroy promoted an anti-immigrant manifesto online just hours before the shooting. according to the new york

times, white extremist shooters have killed at least 63 people in the united states over the past 18 months. we go now to el paso where we are joined by two guests, cesar blanco is a democratic member of the texas house of representatives. fernando garcia is the founding director of the border network for human rights, an advocacy group based in el paso. we welcome you both. first of all, condone -- condolences on the horror that has taken place in your community. we want to begin with cesar blanco. if you could talk about -- tell us about your community in el paso and then tell us what you are demanding right now. cesar: thank you amy. welcoming a warm binational community located on the u.s.-mexico border.

our mexico city -- our sister city to the south -- we are a community that is very tightknit. we are a community that opens its arms to immigrants and welcomes immigrants. this community is a community of immigrants. my father is an immigrant from mexico. this is tragic and it is horrible that we are seeing these types of acts, violence and murder tied to white supremacy occurring here in our communities. we need to see action. words of thee president have been harmful and it is unfortunate that this president has not condemned this white national violent act in our communities and other communities across the country. it is horrible that the united states senate has not taken any action in terms of

gun refororm t to not allow these types of weapons to reach the hands of these individuals who create havoc and fear in our communitieies. amy: describe for us what you understand took place on saturday morning at that walmart. about 10:00 to 10:30, there were 911 calls to police. a gunman began firing in the parking lot of walmart here in el paso and he entered the store and began shooting and firing at individuals. this community is majority latino. miles to600 perform these acts of violence against o our community.y. we have seen in his manifesto the level of hate toward our community and

immigrants in this country and clearly it looks like it was an intentional act. day, families have been waiting to hear news. they set up a family reunification center at the elementatary school i attttended as a kid, to allow families to wait, hearing either the good news or the bad news. unfortunately for many, the bad news was that their family member was killed by this individual. amy: fernando garcia is the founding director of the border network for human rights. can you talk about the reports that some survivors were afraid to get help? maybe they were injured but afraid because of their status right now, their immigration status. fernando: throughout the last two days, we have

received several calls from families that were afraid of andg into the hospital clinics because they saw so many border patrol personnel and they were not reporting their injuries and they were actually going to the hospitals and clinics on their own. they called us and what we did, we called our congresswoman because we wanted border patrol and ice to issue a statement that they would not enforce immigration laws this day in el paso and people are still afraid of that because even before the shooting happened, people were afraid already of immigration enforcement. little by little, people are going to come but it is going to take a little bit more at this point. we are still getting calls of people being afraid to

report their injuries to the hospitals and authorities because of the fear they have with immigration. believe latinos were targeted? clearly in this so-called manifesto, right before the gunman opened fire in el paso, he posted this anti-immigrant screed, apparently attribute it to him. it appeared online -- attributed to him. it appeared online. it reads in part quote, i support the christchurch shooter and his manifesto, this attack is a response to the hispanic invasion of texas. there the instigators, not me, i am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic placement. hispanics will take control of the local and state government of my beloved texas, changing policy to suit their needs. they will turn the state into the tool of a political coup t that will destroy our

country, the manifesto reads. the white nationalist conspiracy theory was also invoked during the white right -- white nationalist rally in charlottesville, virginia. the author of the manifesto says his views preclude president trump but it borrows a number of trump's popular slogans including send them back and fake news which trump also repeated. trump did not refer to the latinos who were killed, who were targeted. he said -- he tweeted very little and spoke little this morning about el paso and dayton but did tweet today's shooting in el paso, texas was not only tragic but an act of cowardice. orre are no reasons excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people. o'rourkeike beto

and senator sanders and others believe that trump is partially responsible for what took place? fernando: let me tell you. what we saw was an attack against a symbol. el paso has been a symbol of resistance against what trump resident -- represents. reacted andy resisted the separation of children, returning refugees to mexico, children dying in border patrol stations and ice stations. our community has shown resilience to these aggressive anti-immigrant agenda of this president but our community has welcomed refugees. we have opopened our homes, our city to refugees and immigrants and it seems we

were punished because of that. we need to call it what it is. a few months ago, we had the white supremacist coming down to el paso and at that time, we engaged with them and what they were saying at that time is that they were responding to trump j cake call to action to come to the border to protect the border from an invasion of criminals. obviously they were referring to children and refugees and mothers. we need to call this what it is. this was the result of trump's racist agenda, drunk -- trump's friend hatred against immigrants. we cannot call it any other way. we believe trump is very cynical that he is calling these -- this shooting, his is aing, the shooting mental health issue.

it is not true. he needs to take responsibility for what he has done. words trump jake killed el paso ends -- trump's friend words cap -- killed words el pasoans. amy: an audience member shouted that migrants crossing into the united states should be shot. interactioion came e as trump wawas praising border seririty workers.s. >> we can't let them u use weapons.s. other ununtries do. we can't.t. i would nenever do that.t. bubut how do you s stop these people? >>ust shoot them. [laughter]r] > that is only in the panhandle you can get away with that statement. amy: thehe audience member shouted shoot them and he said only in the panhandle, he said can you repeat that. i would like to turn to democratatic president of

candidate and new jersey sesenator cory booker. in an inteterview on cnn's state e of the uninion sunday, he said president trump was responsible for the massss shootings. >> i turn my attention to the person who is s leading this c country, who is failing , especially because this wawas a white supremacist manifesto that i want to say with mororand more clarity that donald trump is responsible for this. he is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotrtry. he is reresponsible because he is failing too condemn white supremacy and see it as it is which is responsible for such a significant amount t of the terrorist attackcks. he is responsiblble because he is president of the uniteded states and has failed to do anything significant to stop ththmass availability of weapons to people who intend to do harm. amy: that was cory booker.

i also want to turn to fox and friends, to turn to texas lieutenant governor dan patrick who said it is the videogame industry that was responsible for the rise in masass shootings. >> how long are we going to let for example and ignore at the federal level particularly w where they can do something about the videogame industry? in this manifesto we believe it's from the shooter, this manifesto, he talks about living out his s super soldier fantasasy on call of duty. we know that the videogameme inindustry is biggeger than the movie industry anand the music induststry comombined andd there haveve been studies ththat say that -- i i look at t the common denominatotors as a 60 some-year-old father and grandfather, what has changed in this country? we have always had guns and people but what has changed where we see this rash of shootings, and i see a videogamame industry that teaches young people to

kill. amy: videogames. house minority leader kevin mccarthy made a similar clclaim later on sunday y in an interview on fox. >> the idea of these videogames that dehumanize individuals to have a gala of shooting individuals, i always felt that was a problem for future generations and others. we watch from studies shown before, what it does to individuals. when you look at these photos of how it took place, you can see the actions within videogames and others. amy: you have republican leaders and president trump refusing to talk about both guns and white supremacy. i want to put this question to el paso representative cesar blanco. your state is an open carry state. explain what that means. now a number of democrats are demanding that senate majority leader mitch mcconnell call a special session in the senate so

they can pass gun-control legislation. even the extremely conservative new york post is calling for a weapons ban. can you respond to the state of your state in texas? walmart, where this took place. a mississippi walmart a few days before where workers were killed. both cell weapons. what are your demands quest -- both sell weapons. what are your demands? cesar: this is a state that has an infatuation with weapons that are readily available in our communities. to theto respond lieutenant governor's statement that this is about videogames. videogames didn't kill 2 20 peoplele in our community. maim 26es did not additional people who are fighting for their lives in the hospital. it was a white supremacist

with a high-powered automatic assault rifle that killed those individuals. not a videogame. to skirticians around the truth, to identify the problem and implement policies that address this issue is shameful. we must do more. as a statete representative, i hahave authored legislationon that bans a bump stock style magazine to be sold in our state. it never received a hearing. i have also authored legislation to eliminate thehe online loopholes where people can purchase weapons without background checks. we need major gun reform now but we also need to identify that there is a spread of white nationalism throughout this country that is now

accompanied by acts of violence. these are domestic terrorists in our country. we should treat them no different than al qaeda. we should treat them no different than those individuals who have attacked us in the past. you look at countries such as japan and south korea that has a very large gaming community and industry. we don't see these types of acts of violence in their countries. to blame videogames is irresponsible. i call on both republicans and democrats alike to make meaningful reforms, not only on assault weapons but also to condemn these acts of violence by white supremacists. as thesident, leader, i agree with senator cory booker's comments. our presidents have historically united our country and for this president to stoke fear and

of violence and joking about it in his political rallies is unprecedented. ential.esid we need our leaders in congress to act they need the moral couragage to act. that is what is missing, the lack of strength and courage for elected officials to do the right thing because they , theyraid of the nra are afraid of their racist base and it is unfortunate that they are not speaking out against these on havecan values that come to hurt our communities. amy: i want to thank you both for beingng with u us. bernie sanders recently tweeted there were more than 5 million assault weapons on the streets of america which is more than the u.s. military has. that is insane, we must ban the sale, distribution and

transfer as of -- transfer of assault weapons. there are more weapons and the unit states than people. i want to thank you both for being with us from el paso which is 80% latino and one of the safest cities in the country. fernando garcia of border network for human rights and cesar blanco, texas house of representatives, thank you. this is democracy now! when we come back, white supremacy, white supremacist violence. that is what we are going to talk about. and then, the implosion of the nra. what is holding back even democratic politicians from demanding at this moment bans on assault weapons and other gun regulations? stay with us. ♪

amy: this is democracy now!

as we continue to discuss the mass shooting in el paso, texas where anti-immigrant white supremacist gunman shot dead 20 people, most ofof whom were latino in a walmart. extrema shooters have now killed 63 people in the unit states -- in the united states. last month, the fbi director told members of the senate judiciary committee that crime driven by racism and whites a premise he is on the rise compared to the previous year and that h his agenency repororted a around 100 arrests for the vested terrorism in the past nine months. terrorism i inic the pastst nine momonths. >> a majority of domomestic teterrorism m cases that we have invevestigated are motivatated what youersion of might call white supremacist violence. amy: but former fbi agents say there is a lot -- reluctance to tackle white nationalism due in part to president trump's rhetoric.

a former fbi supervisor told the washington post quote, there was reluctance to bring forth investigations that target what the president perceives as his base. it is a no-win situation for the fbi agents or supervisors. joining us now is mike german, a fellow at newark university law school. he is a co-author of the book disrupt, discredit and divide. from 1988 to 2004, he served as an fbi agent specializing in domestic counterterrorism. we have this weekend of horror from el paso to dayton. we don't know exactly where the motives of the dayton shooter at this point who killed nine people, mainly african-american people and also killed his sister in that slaughter. we do know however what is being attributed, a manifesto to the el paso shooter who is in custody and apparently talking to the authorities. when he went into one of the

most latino walmarts in america and just started shooting. can you respond to what has taken place and talk about the words the president does not wawant to use?e? white supremacy, white nationalism and how that affects investigations i in this country. mike: president trump from the time he was first announcing his candidacy was using very divisive rhetoric that fit v very well into o the white nationalist ideology and identifying the targets we neededthe them to protect us from. , iigrant commumunities think that gave e white nationalists a a bit of comfort that theieir ideas had permeated into the saw a lotam and we

of these white nationalists becocome part of the mainstream conversation when mainstream media started interviewing them about the candidacy of donald trump. unfortunately as we have seen the violence increase from these public rallies and riots, we have not seen a law enforcement response that would dissuade this kind of violence so there is this idea that the violence is sanctioned and that is when it becomes very dangerous, when these white supremacist groups believe the government actually approves of their conduct and is encouraging them to act and that is what i think is very dangerous right now and unfortunately the federal government has not reacted in a way to dissuade this kind of violence. amy: the day before mueller testified, all the attention on mueller, christopher wray testified before the senate and he raised this issue of domestic terrorism, of white

supremacy. he is a trump picket for head of the fbi. that got very little attention. what does the government understand that it is not investigating? what reports have been suppressed around the rise of white supremacy duress -- domestic terrorism? mike: i appreciated directotor statetements but unfortunately theirir policies have actually masked how they use their domestic terrorism resesources to make it harder fofor the congress to understand how many of those resources are going toward white supremacist violence. senator durbin inin 2017 introduced a bill, thee domestic terrorism prevention act that would have required the fbi to document how many incidents and fatatalities were a result of each type, each category

in thestic terrorism domestic terrorism program and then how many investigations and prosecutions occururred in each category, which i believe would have shown a disproportionate amount of groupsgations in that weren't nearly as violent as white supremacists. in suppressing that data, the fbi change the way they collected data, so they grouped anarchists with antigovernment militia under a category of antigovernment. they grouped what had been a white supremacist category with what they previously called black identity extremists so it would be harder to discern whether appropriate resources are going to wear there are actually violent acts attributable to these groups. this is a problem that is long-standing. the justice department is a matter of policy and

practice has de-prioritize the investigation of white supremacist and we talk about a rise in white supremacist violence but the truth is we don't know whether there is a rise because nobody actually accounts for this violent -- violence. the federal government does not know today how many white supremacists kill people each year and they have not been keeping these records even as counterterrorism became its number one priority. what they need to do is change these policies. recently some former and current justice department officials have been arguing that they need new laws, that there are insufficient laws. i worked these cases in the 1990's and no one suggested we did not have enough law. in fact there are plenty of laws. scope of the laws, not just 52 terrorism laws that apply to domestic terrorism, but five federal hate crime

statutes addressing the kind of crimes that white supremacist often commit. organized crime statutes that would prevent the organized roots that act violently -- organized groups that act violently and can replace one another. also other conspiracy statutes. there are plenty of laws, it is a matter of policy and as a matter of policy, the justice department takes hate crime's and defers them to state and local prosecution and only 12% of police department's across the country even report hate crimes. we know that state and locals are not responding to this appropriately, get the federal government just the first two them. -- defers to them. amy: lieutenant governor dan patrick ordered the anti-fascist antiracist movement and tivo stay out of texas following saturday's mass shooting at the el paso walmart. >> i was looking at a story

recently and i saw in the last couple of days that antifa is posting they want to come to el paso and do a 10 day siege. a clear message to antifa, stay out of el paso and stay out of texas. we don't need them coming in on september 1. we did not need them to begin with. antifa,say to scratch texas off your map and don't come in. here is the lieutenant governor of texas, being asked about the alleged government -- the alleged gunman and he targets antifa . president trump has also targeted a antifa. he said the anti-fascist movement should be considered a fascistst movement. mike: it is troubling because this is bubbling up from the far right whites of premises websites into the mainstreamam, not just in the media a but noww fromm

government officials. it is quite trtroubling that there is this distraction. the anti-fascist, antiracist groups, there are no fatalities in n the united states resulting from these groups foror at least a couple decades so why we are even talking about that in antiterrrrorism context when you have groups that are killing people and we are not responding to those groupsps in a way that is comprehensive and helps us understand the problem so we can address it. amy: this is also horrifying. dayton, where something like the 200 -- were something like the 250th and 251st mass shootings this year. 5 is they, august seventh anniversary of the oak creek mass shooting at a temple in wisconsin where

six were killed. mike: absolutely. they troubling because haveve this tacit supppport from the government. they have this lax in n law enforcrcement following up from when they commit public violencece and they y have been able to recruit in a way that was not possible in the 1990's when i w worked thihis issue. -- typicallyd when y you look through history, you see a lot more political violencece around elections and because they have had this s space to recruit and this tacit support from the government, that they can become much more dangerous and unless ththe government starts responding very differently very soon, i'm afraid that we are only going to see more of this. amy: i want to thank you very much for being with us, mike german, a fellow at the brennan center for justice and author of the forthcoming book, disrupt, discredit and divide.

this being the seventh anniversary of the sikh temple massacre in which six people were killed, the shooter was a white supremacist and veteran. he died by suicide that day. this is democracy now! when we come back, what are the democrats afafraid of as the nra, the national rifle association, implodes? stay with us. ♪

amy: written as part of the march for our lives student movement against gun violence. this is democracy now! as we continue to look at this weekend's deadly gun violence in this country. over the spapan of 13 hours, the country was shaken by two mass shootings. anti-immigrant white supremacist gunman talk -- shot 21 people, overerwhelmingatino and a walmart in el paso, , texas.

13 hours later, a gunman with a history of violenen against women shot nine people in dayton, ohio, killing g even his own sister. prprident trump briefly spspoke of the shootings, did not m mention guns, domestic terror or white nationalism. democratic lawmakekers calling on senate majority l leader coconnell to holold a speciall sessssion of t senate to vote on twtwo gun safetyty bills recently passed in the house. this all comes as ththe national rifle a association is imploding. alexe joined now b by yablon, a reporter at the trace. his most recent piece is headlined, mass shootings are destroying our sense of public space. thanks for being with us and thank you for your news organization. start off, we talk a lot about el paso. what do we know about dayton? hours after what happened in el paso. alex: in contrast to the el paso shooting, the dayton shooting does not appear to

be ideologically motivated. instead it is more in-line line with past mass shootings we have seen where a young man has a history of antisocial and threatening manvior, a younung white who o then lashes ouout in public. suspependede was from highh school l after compiling a kill list and rape list of young women that were in his school. that is the kind of thing that in a state with a red flag law which is a procedure that allows a judge to order a seizure of someone's guns even if they are legally owned if you can demonstrate that that person reprpresents an imminentnt threat, that could have been the basis for a red flag seizure or complaint but ohio does not have a red flag law.. governor mike dewine actually backs one. from the, aside

actual act itself, there does not appear to be any kind of ideological ties to this man. amy: also in this case and you often have this in these cases, whether white supremacist or not, these white young men often have a link to violence against women. this one is just very clear with his killing of his own sister, who was at the area in dayton with a friend. alex: misogyny is a really clear link between so many mass shootings. one of the biggest warning signs or risisk factors for mass shootings or any other kikind of shooting is a past history of threats or violent behavior and the way that violent individuals behave, they go through patterns of escalation and it usually starts with those closest to them, either family members, dating

partners, spouses. it is not surprising at all unfortunately to see that the suspect in dayton had this history of intimidatiting and threatening people that he knew. whati want to get to seems to have held back so many democratic and maybe republican legislators at state level and in congress and that is the power of the nra pouring money into elections. apparently they poured less they in november than gun control groups but now are going through a massive spasm, a kind of implosion. can you talk about what is -- what has happened at the nra? alex: the nra is in a very deep crisis. went from 2016 when it spent more than any other single special interest group to back president trump and congressional

republican election efforts to a deep fiscal crisis, accusations of profound corruption at the top of the organization and self-dealing, not to mention run-of-the-mill financial mismanagement. longtime figures in the group like chris cox who was the top lobbyist and was largely seen as the likely was leader of the group forced out as well as a number of board members. from sometems reportrting by my colleagues and many other reporters that found that for a long time, the group has had an unusually close relationship with its top vendor which is an ad firm that has worked with the nra since the late 80's, basically as long as wayne lapierre has been in charge and it is very difficult to say where thehe nraa began -- where the e nra

firm began.e ad most well-known faces of the nra such as dana lasch were actually employees of the ad firm who worked on behalf of the nra through projects like nra tv which is now shut down. 'ssically the group accountatants and s some board members found out that there was no due diligence being performed on these contracts which had ballooned to $40 million a year. amy: we have 20 seconds. alex: and those who have raised concerns about it have been forced out of the organization. amy: we are going to do part two of this conversation and put it online at democracynow.org. this seems to be a key moment for gun control groups. given have the new york post front page issue, you might

have seen, banned weapons of war. -- ban weapons of war. we will talk more about that at democracynow.org. i am amy goodman, thank you so m much