amy: from new york, this is democracy now!. president trump: our nation must condemn bigotry. these sinister ideologies must be defeated. hate has no place in america. amy: in a nationally televised address following this weekend's mass shootings, president trump condemns white

supremacy, but fails for acknowledge his own ratist rhetoric t that was echoed in t man necessary owe of the anti-gunman who killed 22 people in el paso. trump proposed no new major gun control measures but instead blamed video games and mental illness for the spike in mass shootings. president trump: mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. amy: we'll get response from two leading gun control advocates, plus we'll speak to manny and patricia oliver. their son joaquin was killed last year in the mass school shooting in parkland, florida. they just happened to be in el paso on saturday to unveil a mural near the u.s.-mexico border on what would have been joaquin's 19th birthday. and we will get an update on the political crisis in puerto rico. all that and more, coming up. ♪ amy: welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the death toll in saturday's

massacre at an el paso wal-mart has gone up to 22 people after two more injured victims died monday. the gunman posted a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto online 20 minutes before the shooting. hours after the massacre in texas, a gunman shot and killed nine people in dayton, ohio, and injured dozens of others. trump addressed the nation monday and called on americans to "condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy." in his man necessary owe, the el paso shooter said he was "defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion." so far this year, trump's re-election campaign posted over 2,000 facebook ads that include the word "invasion." that refers totoigrants. trump has also repeatedly used the term in speeches. the congressional hispanic cause us asked trump mondaday t stop using the lananguage of invasision when describing immigrant and refugee communities. trump went on to blame the mass

shootings on violent vidideo games, mentatal illness and the "dark recesses of the internet." president trump: mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, nott the gun. amy: trump did not call for changes to the nation's gun control laws, but earlier in the day y wrote on twitter, "republicans and democrats must come together to get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform." in h his address, trump also called for the death penalty for mass shooters. last month the justice department annnnounced the federal governmement is resumin capital punishment after nearly two decades. as he signed off from his televised address, trump named the wrong ohio town in reference to dayton, saying "may god bleless the memories o those who perished in toledo." cesar sayoc, the avid trump supporter who last year sent homemade pipe bombs to cnn and high profile democrats including the obamas and the clintons, was sentenced monday to 20 years in prison.

prosecutors said sayoc should eceive a life sentence for sending the 16 diy bombs but the judge determined that, although he hated them, sayoc had not intended to kill his victims based on the flawed design of the devices which never went off. sayoc's attorneys said he was radicalized by reading trump's tweets, watching fox news, and reading conspiracy theories on the internet. tensions are mounting over kashmir following the revocation. kashmir remained on lockdown, with internet and other communications blocked and leaders placed under house arrest. the status change would mean hindu indians from outside kashmir could start buying land and settling in the region, among other r actionons that wi shift the dedemographic makeup the indian-administered, muslim-majority region. critics and many kashmiris say this would threaten the state's indian rule. protests were held across pakistan monday as political

and military leaears convene today to discuss the i issue. raja farooq q ider, the e prime mininister of pakistan-administered azad kashmir, issued a stern warning, saying pakistan's army would defend the region and make "a graveyard for indian soldldiers" if "india dares to try any mischief" over kashmir. pakistani prime minister imran khan said india's actions were a violation of u.n.n. security council resolutions, while the u.n. is calling for all parties exercise e restraint. the political crisis in puerto rico continues as the senate sued against the appointment of pedro pierluisi as the new governor following ricardo rosselló's resignation last week. pierluisi was sworn in despite not having being confirmed by the puerto rican senate. ierluisi argues he is in the line of succession for governor after being nominated as secretary of state by rosselló last week. san juan mayor carmen yulin cruz also sued after pierluisi's swearing in. pierluisi's law firm represents the unelected, federally appointed control board with sweeping powers to run puerto

rico's economy. puerto ricans also say he represents a continuation of the corruption and status quo in the country's leadership. the treasury department designated china a currency manipulator afteter it allowed its currency to weaken to an 11-year low amid the ongoing trade war with president trump. china's move came after trump st week ththreatened to impopose a fufurther 10% ririff on $30000 billion of chinesese goods. trump lashed out monday, accusing china of using it to "steal our business and factories, hurt our jobs, depress our workersrs' wages an harm our farmers' pririces. not anymore." china also directed state-owned companies to suspend imports of u.s. crops. economists have refuted trump's claims that china will bear the economic brunt of increased tariffs, saying u.s. consumers will in fact suffer the most. stocks dropped in response monday, with wall strereet suffering its worst day of 2019. president trump signed an executive order monday imposing news sanctions against

venezuela and the government of president nicolas maduro, in what amounts to a near total economic embargo. the latest move freezes the property and assets of the venezuelan government as the country grapples with ongoing sanctions targeting its oil industry. the wall street journal reports that the sanctions are on a par with those against north korea, iran, syria and cuba. venezuelan vice president delcy rodriguez said in an interview the country is "facing a transnational legal coup planned by the u.s. government." venezuela has been plunged into a political crisis following the attempted overthrow of maduro by opposition leader juan guaido in january. the ongoing unrest and us-imposed sanctions have crippled the venezuelan economy. according to the united nations, around a quarter of venezuela's population is in need of aid, and three million people have left venezuela since 2016. trump's national security adviser john bolton is speaking today at a conference in lima, peru where he will reiterate u.s. support for guaido. special envoy to venezuela elliott abrams and commerce secretary wilbur ross are also

set to attend the meeting. in southwestern libya, officials say a drone strike on the remote town sunday killed 42 people and injured 60 others, 30 of them critically. the un-backed government blamed the assault on the loyalty to former libyan general khalifa haftar, who already controls much of eastern libya. haftar is a former cia asset who the white house has praised for his "role in fighting terrorism and securing libya's oil resources." the singer and accused serial pedophile r. kelly has been charged in minnesota with two felony counts of prostitution and solicitation involving a minor. r. kelly is accused of luring the girl, then 17, to his hotel room, where he offered her $2 hundred to undress and dance for him. r. kelly, is currently behind bars in new york where he faces multiple federal criminal charges for abusing women and girls. he was arrested last month in chicago and indicted on counts including obstruction of justice, child pornography, and sexual assault.

police in galveston, texas, apologized following outrage over a photo showing a horse-mounted officers leading a handcuffed black man down the street with a rope. the man was arrested saturday on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. the president of the galveston coalition for justice leon phillips, said the officers humiliated the man and that the photo was reminiscent of racist imageses from the 1920s. james douglas, the president of houston's naacp also lamented the photo, saying "this is 2019 and not 1819." in media news, two of the country's largest newspaper publishers are merging . gatehouse media acquired gannett, which owns usa today, among other papers, for $1.4 billion. the new company will own over 250 daily newspapers and hundreds of other weekly and community publications. the company, which will retain the name gannett, will own over

one-sixth of all daily newspapers in the united states. critics warn the merger could result in newsroom layoffs. and local reporting may be sacrificed in favor of stories produced remotely and republished across many of the company's newspapers. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to our listeners and viewers from across the country and around the world. the death toll in the shooting at a wal-mart in el paso has risen to 22 after two more victims died monday. it is one of the deadliest mass shootings in u.s. history. just before the shooting, the gunman published a man necessary owe claiming his actions were being done in response to what he described as a "hispanic invasion of texas." parts of the man necessary owe echoed president trump's anti-immigrant rhetotoric. most of the dead in el pasaso were latino, including eight mexican nationals 136789 hours

after the massacre in el paso, a gunman in dayton, ohio, killed nine people, including his own sister, after opening fire outside a bar. amy: on monday, president trump addressed the nation. he did not acknowledge his own anti-immigrant rhetoric. president trump: in our voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. these sinister ideologies must be defeated. ate has no place in america. hatred devours the soul. juan: president trump also laid out a plan to confront mass shootings, but said little about enacting any new form of gun control. president trump: first we must do a better job of identifying and acting on early warning signs. second, we must stop the glorification of violence in our society. this includes the gruesome a an

grizzly y video games that are now commonplace. it is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. third, we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people not only get treatment, but, when necessary, involuntary confinement. mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. my: we're joined by igor , the author of "guns down: how to defeat the nra and build a safer future with fewer guns." igor: it's tragic, but not

surprising. when you combine late, when you combine racism with easy access to firearms, you get tragedy. and so when we think about what we have to do, i think the number one thing is we have to ensure that firearms are harder to get in this country, particularly firearms that were designed for the military, that the gun manufacturers in this country are pumping into our communities. they're making these guns more dangerous ever single year. they're using advertisements that pull in military themes. so when you see a mass shooter walk into a situation and use an assault weapon where military fatigues -- wear military fatigues, they're using the firearms as advertised. juan: of course, it's not just mass shootings. they always get the biggest attention in the media, but what is it, 100 0 people a day average are being killed by guns in the united states? igor: it's about 40,000 people

ever single year. most of that, as up point out, is every day gun violence, using handguns. amy: the majority people taking their own lives by suicide? igor: 2/3 is suicide. until 1989, the most popular handgun was a revolver. now it's a semiautomatic pistol that uses larger rounds. those rounds are coming at you faster. that's not an accident. that's because the gun industry made a decision that they're going to start making these weapons more dangerous, because they want to sell more weapons to folks who already had them. the federal government t can st this. amy: so let's talk about how the federal government can stop this. first of all, in both dayton and in el paso, do you believe, but we don't know everything about how they got these guns, but they got these guns legally. igor: it's because the standard of gun ownership in america is somewhere in the basement. it's so incredibly low. we have to raise the standard, not only for gun ownership, but

also for gun production. so why don't we have a gun licensing system in the united states where if you want to own a gun, you have to go to your police station, get finger printed, you have to pass a test, go through a much more comprehensive background check. there's a waiting period and then you can get your firearm. amy: snore coir booker has demand licensing, like you license a car. igor: exactlyly, senator booker mayor pete has that that. amy: let's turn to senator cory booker. >> it is one thing we don't all agree with when it comes to guns, and i think it's s common sense, and over 70% of americans agree with me. if you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to buy and own a firearm. not everybody in the field agrees with that, but in states like connecticut that d that, they saw 40% drops in gun violence and 15% drops in suicides. we need to start having bobold enendas on g guns. amy: bold agendas. does it sound like what -- even

the democrats are now proposing the senate, if mitch mcconnell will call a special session. mitch mcconnell, who fractured his shoulder apparently at his house in kentucky, if he would call a special session. what they're proposing for the senate to pass? igor: they're proposing the senate house pass, the house pass a background check bill. the house passed that measure in february 27. it would extend background checks to almost all gun purchases. it's a step in the right direction. it doesn't go far enough. and, you know, while i appreciate the calls for mitch mcconnell to call a special session, i think all of us together could set ourselves ablaze on mitch mcconnell's front lawn, and he wouldn't do anything. he's established an entire political career around carrying the n.r.a.'s water. so what i don't understand is why champions of gun reform in the senate, the people who marched with us in parkland, the people who promised they

would fight for us, why they're not back in washington, d.c., showing the nation that they are ready to pass legislation to disarm domestic terrorists, while the other folks are on vacation. people want to see a fight on this issue. they're so tired of a mass shooting. we talk about it for three days maybe, and then nothing happens. lawmakers have to fight for this. we can't w wait for mcconnell. juan: i wanted to ask you, in the absence of any government action, substantive government action, what else can be done? you've raised the issue of private corporations, specifically wal-mart, the role of wal-mart and the selling of guns in the united states. igor: yeah, this is significant. wal-mart is the largest seller of guns in the united states, just given its size. and if wal-mart decided to take a stand on this issue, it could have a big difference. so my demand of wal-mart is, number one, stop selling guns,

period, until we can raise the standard of gun ownership in this country. stop giving political contributions to lawmakers who take money from the n.r.a. and also, invest in the communities that you serve. fund gun buyback programs all around those communities. they have a troll play here. you know, as you point o out, legislative change, particularly on the federal level, takes a really long time. so it's up to us to organize all voices of society to help build that future. amy: you have this call for wal-mart to stop selling guns. they were selling them in the el paso wal-mart. they were selling them in mississippi, where two employees were just killed last week. companies like dick's sporting goods just stopped selling weapons. is that right? igor: that's right, and they stopped with assault weapons. they've raised the age. they've moved in the right direction, but they need -- clearly, as this act shows, they need to go further. amy: we're also joined by kris brown, president of brady, formerly the brady campaign to prevent gun violence, named for

james brady, who was shot in the head during the attempted assassination of president reagan. kris brown, welcome to democracy now!. can you lay out what you're demanding, and do you feel that what the democrats want the senate to vote on right now is enough? kris: what we're demanding right now is that mitch mcconnell call the senate back into session and consider the twtwo m measures that have been passed by the house to expand brady background checks and ensure that a background check is done before every gun sale, hr-142 in the senate. and a bill to clomes the charleston loophole, the loophole that t allows a a gun to proceed fine a background check hasn't come back in 72 hours. it's called the charleston loophole, because that's how the shooter at the a.m.e. baptist church in charleston got his gun. yes, we want those two measures

to be brought up. we want mcconnell to call the senate back into session. is that enough? no. because gun violence is an epidemic in this country. it's not one solution that we need. if you're looking at an epidemic that claims 40,000 lives a yeaear, you need a multipronged solution. we also need to ban assault weapons. we need to restrict high-capacity magazines. and we do need funding for states to enact what we cacall extreme risk laws. those are the laws that have been talked about a lot lately that allow law enforcement and family members to seek a court order to remove guns from a a individual who i is at risk of doing harm to himself or herself or others. juan: and kris brown, your reaction to the president's statements since these two weekend shootings. his emphasis on that hate -- that hate is behind, and mental

health issues are more to blame than guns themselves. kris: yeah, i think that what he pointed to yesterday in his peech were video games and mental health issues. the reality is we have a global market for video games in this country. and the united states doesn't experience any greater degree of mental illness than any other industrialized country. what we have more of than any other industrialized country is gun violence. so i was very disappointed that he seemed to use the n.r.a. talking points, and it's no surprise, the n.r.a. is the greatest single contributor to donald trump, and that he stuck to his script that's about every other issue except the core issue, which is guns, and the appropriate regulation of f guns in this country, an issue in which the vast majority of americans, democrat or republican, red or blue states, agree what the right solutions are, and the o ones i've just

laid out. amy: in a statement monday, the n.r.a. praised trump's speech, writing "the n.r.a. welcomeless the president's call to address the root causes of the horrific acts of violence that have occurred in our country. it's been the n.r.a.'s long-standing position that those who have been adjudicated as a danger to themselves or other should not have access to firearms and should be admitted for treatment." the n.r.a. said that. kris brown, the n.r.a. is imploding right now. this is a critical moment. if you can address what that means, that the n.r.a. does not wield the same kind of power, you have these horrific massacres this weekend following so many others -- there's the 250 and 251st mass shootings just this year. what this means that the n.r.a. is just embroileded in corrupti and new york is investigating the n.r.a. as well.

kris: new york, the district of columbia, we're about to file a petition with the i.r.s. to ask the i.r.s. to also investigate them. they are suing their marketing firm. they're being countersued by that marketing firm. and the headline for the n.r.a. should really be lies, corruption, and deceit, because that is howow they have run thi business. and make no mistake, this is not a nonprofit. it's not operated as a nonprofit. it is a mouthpiece for the gun industry. average everyday gun owners don't support actions that are being taken by the n.r.a. and in part, it is the lies. let me just correct the record on what the n.r.a. said with respect to mental health. if they really believe that, why would they have pushed president trump to overrule a rule that had been put in place

by president obama to have the social security administration put names into the brady backgrouound checkck system of individuals who had been adjudicated mentally ill by the social security administration. in the first 60 days of trump's presidency, the n.r.a. had trump reverse that rule, because they didn'n't want thos names in the background check system. so that is just a complete lie. they have never wanted to have the solution be any restriction on any kind of gun, and that is because t they want to sell gun to anyone, anywhere, any time, and they don't care about who gets killed as a result. juan: igor volsky, your organization has also been promoted the campaign disarm your bank. can you talk about the relationship of banks to gun violence? igor: is your bank loaded? look, the reality is we need to change the way the gun industry

operates. so if the lawmakers in d.c. aren't going to do it, we have to rely on other levers of power. banks are a natural fit in this. and so our message is, when you bank, your hard-earned dollars should not go to fund the gun industry. and so folks go to isyourbankloaded.org, they can see a report card of how much business their banks have done with the gun industry. and then on that site, push their bank to live up to their own corporate values and stop doing business with that industry until it stops manufacturing military-style weapons for the civilian market. and by the way, right now, you have a merger going through between bb&t and suntrust to create the nation's sixth largest bank. bb&t said in open hearings in congress that it will continue to do business with the gun industry in this merged form. this is after they found out,

we found out, that they arranged millions of dollars in loans to smith ww wesson about a year and a half before smith & wesson assault weapon was used to kill 17 people in parklandnd. peopople need to take action on this. sosoip brady supporting an assault weapons ban? i mean, you have the assault weapons ban that sunset in 2004, 2/3 of the american people supported it. but it was not renewed. of the 40 deadliest mass shootings, only two occurred during the time that ban was in effect. afterwards, 26 of them occurred. why not demand at this point, with the entire country in many cases across the political spectrum, just in horror at what has taken place, call for an assault weapons ban? kris: we have called for it over and over and over again. any time i make any media appearance, anany press release

we put out, i just said it a few minutes ago, absolutely, w have to hahave a r renewal of t assaulult weapons ban. brady crafted that assault weapons ban. the only thing we really objected to is the last minute, n.r.a.-led compromisise put a susunset provision into that la that's why it expired after a decade. congress did not have the political will to renew it. brady has long had a legal arm as part of what we do. we're proud to have had a legal function at brady for 30 years, and we have represented almost every locality and state that hass adopted an assault weapons ban, and you can be sure the n.r.a. has attempteded to attac those in state after state after state, and we have successfully defended those laws and ensured thatt they hav been held entirely constitutional and consistent with the second amendment by every court that has ever looked at the issue. amy: do you think democrats are going far enenough?

kris: look, we have a gun violence prevention majority that we helped elect to the house of representatives in 2018. they have passed two measureres. i'm prououd that they did that. they funded the c.d.c. for the first time in 20 years. they've put $50 million toward gun violence prevention. i would like to see them take up the other measures that are pending. there's an assssault weapons ba bill pending in congress. they should take that up. there are extreme risk k laws that have been crafted to provide a federal cause of action to seek an extreme risk order, as well as to provide critical grants to the states to implement these laws. the house should also pass these measures. so i would like to see them do more. and even if what we are doioing is basically continuing to put pressure on the senate, that is what we must do. i think too many members of congress still, and mitch mcconnell is a classic example of this, they get elected, and

they forget t that their electe officers, basically they are representing people, they're not representing corporations. they're not representing industries. they are representing people. and all of us have to remind our elected officials that that is just the fact. amy: we have 15 seconds. igor: well, look, i want to see democrats go down to the floor of the senate, filibuster, place holds on nominee on bills, do whatever it takes, really, really fight for all of these reforms. amy: we want to thank you both for being with us. igor volsky from guns down america, author of "guns down: how to defeat the nra and build a safer future with fewer guns," and thanks so much to kris brown of brady, named for jim brady, press secretary of ronald reagan who was shot in the head during the attempted assassination of president ronald reagan. when we come back, we go to mexico city. eight nationals died in the

massacre and aftermath in el paso. tay with us. ] ♪ [music break ♪ music break]

juan: as we continue to look at saturday's mass shooting in el paso, we turn now to focus on the gunman's racist conspiracy-fueled vision of the world. in a manifesto that echoed trump in parts, the gunman wrote about a "hispanic invasion of texas." he also promoted a conspiracy theory known as great replacement that has been cited by other mass shooters. amy: o our next guest has long called out racists for promoting such views. all i want 017, for christmas is white

genocide, mocking the white supremist ideology that white people are being replace bid communities of color and nonwhite immigrantnts. he joins us today from mexico ity. your response to the two massacres in dayton and el paso, at this point the number is eight mexican nationals have died in that attack, where the gunman cited the hispanic i uess vacation.n. george: well, there's not much to say, beyond the fact, of course, this is a continuity of what's been going on for a long time in the united states. but, unfortunately, i think what we're seeing is a control crystalization in the el paso attack of the ways in which trump's anti-migrant panic and rhetoric and hatred, dehumanization of migrants, of the migrant caravan, has dove

tailed seamlessly with broader white nationalist, white supremacist theories, theories developed in france, theory that is influence, for example, the christchurch shooting in new zealand, theories in which this paranoid vision of the world is painted, in which those who have the most power in the world, white people, are painted as the victims, as the victims a replacement, as the victims of genocide. so you have this practice jeblingt a from europe, to christchurch, to the united states, in which this idea of replacement has fueled not only white supremacist violence mass shootings, buzz these are the same theories, of course, that were so important for steve ban nonand others in the trump administration. it's no surprise these things are coming together. sadly, what we're seeing in the brutality of el paso is the ways in which these theories are crystal clear in inspiring open acts of violence alongside the everyday acts of violence, the murders of migrants on the

border, deaths at the hand of border practice troll, family separation, and the everyday violence of border policing. juan: this whole issue of the gunman raising this claim of hispanic invasion, especially in texas, because obviously those who are familiar with the history of texas know that there was a prior armed invasion that occurred in texax in which the 1920's and 1930's of anglos that moved into mexico. this whole concept, raising the fear among americans that there s an invasion occurring. george: yeah, absolutely. the absurdity is incredible when you think about the fact that this was a state that provoked a war through armed anglo invasion, and which continues after seizing texas from mexico, continued to dispossess, you know, formerly

mexican latinos and tejanos of their land, of their possessions by force. and this, of course, is the background of texan history. and it really, i think, points out, again, the absurdity of this theory that really inverts the world we live in. when you read the el paso shooter's manifesto, he said i'm not instigating, this i am the virge i'm being forced to act. and you see this in a lot of white supremacist narratives today, and it really helps to explain not only the prevail answer of these three riis, the ways they tap into mainstream culture. you don't say you're the master race, you can say you're the victim of diversity or the victim of affirmative action, to feel this white resentment. but it also, it convinces these shooters they need to act. they are in the face of a catastrophe, a biological and genetic catastrophe that they need to confront. and this is part of what's behind this wave of shootings.

this is what we really need to grasp and what we really need to understand today. juan: and eight of the people killed in the shooting in el paso were actually mexican nationals. during a press conference, secretary of foreign affairs marcelo called the shooting an act of terrorism against mexicans in the u.s. and said the mexican government will look into whether there's enough evidence to solicit the extraditition of the gunman to face charges in mexico city. this whole issue of the presence of mexican nationals and also -- on monday, i wanted to mention also that mexican president andres manuel object radio door needed to do more to coal control the sale of weapons. ththis is whwhat he said. [translator: the u.s. needs to control the indiscriminate seafl weapons.s. i say this with all due respect. is not our intention to meddle in the rules of the

country, but it has an effect on many, and in this case it affefects u.s. citizens and als affects us. juan: that was the president. your reaction? george: yes, it's been clear for a long time that despite the u.s. narrative, one heightened and amplified by trump that somehow violence is seeping northward across the boreder from mexico, mexicans have long known that it's actually u.s.-made weapons that are being funneled en masse across the border into mexico and fueling the amplified violence of the past few decades. this is absolutely clear. and in a way, it's very good, i think, to see the lopez obrador administration pointing out the fact that this is an attack on mexican nationals. the fact that it is geared toward racist and ethnic ends as a way of really putting a point on what's happened and making clear this is not just another massacre. it's not just another individual with mental health issues or someone who's playing

violent video games. it's an attack on people for very specific reasons. at the same time, i think we should be careful to not get lost in a clash between two governments, the united states and mexico, and to lose sight of the fact that many of the migrants, in fact, most of the migrants that trump has been demonizing have been central americans, migrantss that have been gone through their own travails passing through mexico, which is not always a safe or welcoming place for those migrants. and so it's good to see the mexican government taking this action. we must also realize that the migration crisis is a much broader one. again, it's one that happens on the ground. it's important to understand that the shooter in el paso saw himself as participating in border control. his goal was to prevent people from migrating. his goal was to push back what he saw asen invading weavepl the same thing is being done by men on the bothered. the same thing is being done by pushing migrants themselves out into the desert and toward death. and so this is a much broader

policy that goes back into democratic administrations as well that we need to confront. amy: also, uruguay issued a warning for its citizens who are traveling to the united states in the aftermath of the two deadadly mass shohootings. warned them of deadly hate crimes against them. george, can you talk about the difffference and how president trump has treated white supremacists a and anti-fascist two weeks ago trump tweeted, consideration is being given to declaring antifa the gutless radical left whack job who is go around hitting only nonfighters, people over the heads with baseball bats, a major organization of terror, along with ms-13 and others. would make it easier for police to do their job. trump tweeted that. wants to put antifa on the terror list. george: i mean, this is not surprising coming from trump. it's a diversionary tactic, antifa, the death count of

antifa is still zero. but the point is precisely, and more importantly, that trump has coddled and encouraged white supremacists, because these are, you know, they represent an important part of his most radical base. he did not want to alienate them, and this is why, after charlottesville, for example, he spoke of good people on both sides. he's always sought to use dog whistles and other forms of communication directly with antifa. steve bannon, again, represented a direct link with white supremacists and fascist organizations who were directly involved in pushing policy initiatives in the white house. these connections are known, and they are clear. trump withdrew and diverted funding away from taking seriously white nationalist violence in the united states and continually tried to emphasize to end the violence of black nationalists, the violence of anti-fascists. the reality is we need to understand is that it is antifa that has done the organizing in

the streets. they have done the information collecting that's allowed, nor of these white nationalist organizations to be weakened, to be driven back, that has pushed people like richard expenser to admit they can't really organize in the streets anymore. this is what antifa has been doing, and it's not just trump that's been undermining it. it's been democrats. it's been those who want to equatete antifa with fascism itself. we need to all stand up and embrace anti-fascist organizing. of course, not attacking innocent people who haven't done anything, but embrace the fact that fascism will not go away by itself. this is something we've been told over and over again, and what we're seeing today is these white supremacist organizations are going to continue to attack. members of the proud boys, members of identity ropa. these are all mass shooters waiting to happen. ey are preaching hatred. they're paparticating in the hatred a they'rengaged every dayn attempng toake e unitedtates a chore hateful cntry. this kinof violence ithe inethable result. juan: and george, i wanted to ask you, president trump today

proposed tightening background checks, but suggested pairing any kind of gun legislation with immigration reform. and somehow linking these two. what's your reaction to the surprising announcement? george: it is prizing, because he's taking the cause, one of the main causes of this massacre, and trying to make it look as if it were the solution. you know, the reality is that he is the one who is engaged in this kind of anti-migrant rhetoric, that is pressing people like the el paso shooter to the margins, who are then going and reading theories of the great replacement that inspired, for example, the christchurch shooter as well, reading these documents online, and then jumping into action. if you read, and unfortunately, i think people should read the manifesto of the el paso shooter, because you see exactly that this is trump's rhetoric. but it's also the rhetoric of border control that's been, you

know, purveyed for decades under democrats, under republicans. it's the kind of rhetoric that tacitly allowed these things to happen. cnn, not just fox news, tucker carlson, of course, is a great purveyor of the myth of white genocide and white replacement, but cnn ran a headline about the disappearance of white america. these are the kind of things that passively allow this paranoia to seep into mainstream white america, that in the context of devastation economically, in the context of economic suffering, allowed people to be mobilized, to be radicalized by these white nationalist organizations, which are spreading, which are using the internet, and which are encouraging people through 8chan, which looks like it's been weakened, encouraging people to engage in these attacks. amy: thahank you so mumuch for being with us. yes, it looks like 8chan has been brought down, the place where the shooter allegedly posting this manifesto, this anti-immigrant, racist, white supremacist manifesto, 20

minutes before he opened fire. george ciccariello-maher, thank you for being visit, political scientist and visiting scholar at the hemispheric institute at new york university. he is the author of decoloninizing dialectics.s. this iss democracy now!. when we come back, a couple from parkland who lost their beloved son decided on what would have been his 19th birthday to go to el paso to raise a muraral in his honor. then the massacre happened. stay wusms stay with us. ♪ ♪ music break]

amy: this is democracy now!. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: as we continue to cover this weekend's deadly gun violence, we're joined by manuel and patricia oliver. they were just miles away from the el paso, texas, wal-mart store where the mass shooting took place. commemorating what would have been the 19th birthday of their son, joaquin oliver.

joaquin was one of the 17 people shot dead during the marjory stoneman douglas massacre last year, when a former student, armed with a semiconductor ar-15 assault rifle, opened fire. amy: manuel and patricia oliver had traveled across the u.s. border into mexico to visit an immigrant shelter in honor of their son, saying no child should ever be separated from their parent, not by gunfire, not by border control agents, and the couple was going to el paso when they got word of the mass shooting. they were heading to paint a a mural to commemorate their son's life and passion for immigrant rights. many of the murals called for an end to gun violence in honor of their son. the mural at the immigrant advocacy center in el paso, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for rights, was scheduled to be unveiled sunday evening. we're going to fort lauderdale now, not far from parkrkland, where e we're joined by manuel and patricia oliver.

they just flew into florida from el paso last night. thanks so much for rejoining us again. we spoke to you when you were here in new york, and our condolences on this weekend. again, your son would have been, joaquin would have been 19 years old. describe how you learned that this massacre had taken place at wal-mart. manuel: we were -- thank you or having us here again. we were notified by friends calling us. a lot of our friends and people that know what we do were agents concerned when they start listening this shooting in el paso. they knew that we were in el paso. so they started calling patricia's phone, and at some point it got a little weird that everybody was asking, how are you, are you ok.

and right after that, and right after that, a few minutes, we heard, like, hey, there's a shooting going on here in el paso. maybe we should see what happens. he is, cuidad war visiting an immigrant center, and then we went back to el paso to see what we could do. but yeah, that's the way that we had to, again, go through a mass shooting pretty close to where we were. juan: and your reaction to the almost predictable now reaction of national leaders after every one of these mass shootings and a lot of words said initially, but then most of the time, almost invariably, it's forgotten.

manuel: some things are changing, but i haven't heard many. i haven't heard so many thoughts and prayers. maybe they're starting to understand that nobody is going play the game that way. but, of course, we were watching the president when he was talking to the nation, and he was actually reading to the nation what he thought. you don't read your emotions. you're not honest 100% with your feelings when you have to read how you're feeling and what you think should be done. so leaders, again, disappoint me. the governor from texas, shame on him. i mean, the way he's endorsing actually, the reality is that we're all targets. in this particular case, yes, latinos and hispanics and immigrants, but at the end of

the day, we are all targets, , you, me, patriricia, everybody. amy: your thoughts, patricia, on president trump saying he's going to el paso and dayton. the m mayor of dayton said, is going dayton or toledo? because, you know income his address, he gave condolences to the people of toledo. so she said she wasn't sure where he was going. but it's very clear, i mean, people like beto o'rourke, the congressman from el paso, said he is not welcome here. your thoughts on this, as people who lost their ownwn son in a mass shooting. patricia: well, amy, first of all, thank you for having us here, sadly, but again, under these circumstances. really, i agree with beto, because one person showing that attitude, increasing that division that he seem to, in

talking about trump, of course, and then he's pretending to go to el paso, showing what? it's obvious, what he's been saying in the past doesn't have any consequences. and these consequences are in the community of el paso. its their suffering the white supremacy hatred, that is being seen by this president. this president has to think about it first, where he's going, and after he realizes that he's going to a place, that he's being suggesting that we have to have this kind of division and due to the support of all lobbies related with gun violence, i think that he should be thinking more than once. because that reminds me myself, when this happened to us here, that we are still waiting for him to come. doesn't matter where he goes. it matters what he does.

and if he does really good things, and he takes action of his own words and responsibilities are being seen, that kind of thing, division, we're going to talk in a different way. juan: i want to ask manuel, the 30th mural you've done since your son passed away in various cities across the country. you did one in -- outside the n.r.a. convention in dallas. what's been the reaction of ordinary people who have seen these murals of yours, and your hope for possible change in terms of gun regulations, gun laws. manuel: there's a few things going on with the murals. i think that the most important one is that these are not art pieces that i paint. these are statements from gentleman quinn. and -- from joaquin. it's a way to turn a victim

into an activist, and we feel good about that, because we continue with our p parenting role. and we also think that joaquin deserved that opportunity to defend himself, to represent other victims. so that's basically the main idea behind the murals. now, the other thing that we thought when we started this, i'm an artist. this is my only skill. i have very few skills. that's one of them. so i use it. i didn't turn myself into anything different after i lost my beautiful son and my best friend. we think that untraditional ways to connect people and to make impact, easy, fast, like an advertising billboard, it will be something that might work. i don't believe in traditional ways of fighting gun violence. there's been years of gun violence, so we decided, you

know what, i'm not going to spend time talking to a politician in d.c. i can do that all day long. i have tried it. i'd rather stay 30 m minutes, paint a wall, get it out there, everybody will see it, and now you have a reaction from a social point of view. and in a few years, hopefully not so many, we will see that change of behavior from society. that's the whole point behind the murals. amy: are you calling for an assault weapons ban? manuel: 100%. of course. amy: and you're saying that trump has never come to parkland? manuel: no. well, when he plays golf. patricia: exactly. he goes to mar-a-lago. when it happens last year, as far as i can remember, he was visiting in different hospital. he offered to come more than

once, actually, because that didn't happen. we offer it, we invited him to come home and see joaquin's room, and we didn't get any answer yet. so i don't think that going to a place, with no meaning, when you're trying to turn to people, it doesn't matter. you stay home. you stay in the white house and do something better, more worth it, finally. amy: clearly what happened with parkland, parkland came to washington, and led by the students, the students survivors, 800,000 strong marched in washington, d.c. it's also where we saw the two of you. we want to thank you both so much for being with us. patricia and manuel oliver, parents of joaquin, killed last year at the mararjory stonemama douglas high school massacre in parkland. he would have turned 19 years old this past weekend. this is democracy now!,.org dork the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez, as we end today's show looking at the political crisis in puerto rico. on monday the puerto rican senate sued to block the

appointment of pedro pierluissi as the new governor following the resignation last week. juan, if you can explain the latest and what this means. new governor in puerto rico. juan: well, at 5:00 p.m. friday, governor rossello officially resigned. just before that, he named a successor. e c claimed a suck 10, pedro pierlu si, who is not the secretary of state, as per the constitution, but he named him secretary of state to be able to succeed him, but only the house, the house of representatives of puerto rico, voted by one vote, by a one-vote majority to approved pierluisi. but the snant did not on friday, and postponed till monday, till yesterday, meeting on the issue, and that raises a constitutional crisis in puerto rico without precedent, because is this named governor the real governor? is he legally able to hold office? well, pierluisi spent the whole

weekend meeting with agency heads and other government officials, but did not make any public appearances. and he's insisting that else the governor. the senate then met on monday and did not vote. they basically said -- amy: they have to approve ththe governor? juan: well, some say they do. they're claiming they do. no, they have approve pierluisi as the secretary of state, which they have not done, so they're claiming that he's not officially the governor, a and they've not g gone to c court, the supreme court of puerto rico, which has told both sides to come in with their legal briefs by noon today, so that the supreme court will then look at the briefs and supposedly make a decision went next few days. but in the meantime, virtually few legal scholars or the media are recognizing pierluisi as the governor, and you have this situation where the senate does not recognize him apts the governor.

we're going to have to wait and see what happens. amy: and carmen yulin cruz, hasn't she sued? juan: she's filed her own lawsuit against pierluisi being named. so there are two lawsuits, but i think the supreme court is hearing the senate's lawsuit. amy: and who i is pierluisi? juan: interestingly enough, he was the resident commissioner for many years. he's of the same party of rossello, but he was also the brother-in-law of the chairman of the financial control board that is running puerto rico. he had a law firm that was representing, that was doing work for the board, and he also was a lobbyist for a corporation, a virginia-based company that was polluting puerto rico with coal ash from their plant in the southern part of puerto rico. so he's got all kinds of conflicts that make him unlikely to be supported by majority of people to remain as interim governor. amy: we'll continue to knoll and talk about it tomorrow on democracy now!.

to see all our coverage of puerto rico, visit democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. email your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to: democracy now! p.o. box 693