Former President Donald Trump very briefly referred at a political rally to the racist shootings in Buffalo that claimed ten lives — then immediately switched in a wild non sequitur to Afghanistan, where he falsely claimed there was no lack of life.
Few details were likely verified on the time on Saturday when Trump commented on the Buffalo violence on the rally in Austin, Texas. But he was clearly aware “many people” had been killed and expressed no sadness nor offered condolences.
“I feel they’d a tragic event in Buffalo … tragic event in Buffalo with many people being killed,” he told the gang. He immediately added: “In 18 months in Afghanistan, we lost no one,” which will not be true.
Trump: I feel they’d a tragic event in Buffalo. Tragic event in Buffalo with many people being killed. In 18 months in Afghanistan, we lost no one. pic.twitter.com/U9LcgLsVAY
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 14, 2022
It was strange to match a murderous domestic hate crime to a war zone. Trump also lied about deaths in Afghanistan. There was no 18-month time frame throughout the Trump administration when there was no American lack of life, in response to Pentagon statistics. During Trump’s last 12 months in office, 22 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) denounced Trump’s comparison of Afghanistan to Buffalo as “ridiculous” and his dismissal of the deaths of U.S. servicemembers as “disrespectful.”
It is a ridiculous comparison by the previous President. Also, Trump is a liar and disrespects the 64 brave US servicemembers who died under his watch in Afghanistan by ignoring their deaths in his statement: 11 in 2020; 24 in 2019; 14 in 2018; 15 in 2017. https://t.co/yDB3zgJBa3 https://t.co/P3W7IlUArk
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 15, 2022
Trump could have been uncomfortable discussing the shootings, given his own history linked to the racist “great alternative theory” that apparently inspired the suspected gunman, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, in response to his online writings. The speculation claims white Americans are susceptible to being replaced by people of color through immigration, interracial marriage and eventually violence.
Trump described white supremacists who embraced the idea and marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 as “very high quality people.” They chanted “Jews is not going to replace us,” and “you is not going to replace us” while they marched.
One among them, self-avowed white nationalist James Alex Fields, killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer when he deliberately drove his automotive right into a crowd of counterprotesters that day.
Tucker Carlson, host on Trump’s go-to channel Fox News, was named just over per week ago by MSNBC because the “No. 1 champion” of the viciously racist theory.
