Video games. Homelessness. Social media. After shootings, Republicans have avoided talking about Trump and white nationalism.

Trump and Republican leaders are largely focusing their talking points following two mass shootings — including one in El Paso in which the suspect may be charged with a hate crime — on everything but the obvious factors: They discussed video games, homelessness and social media. Largely left out: guns; and the rise of white nationalism and whether Trump’s racially divisive language factors into that.

President Trump’s own FBI director has indicated that white supremacy-related domestic terrorism is on the rise. That rise has been frequently noted in the past few weeks, as Trump has been escalating his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

In an address Monday, Trump acknowledged the racial hatred apparently at play in the El Paso shooting by saying something he rarely does: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.” He made no connection between those things and his own racially divisive rhetoric.

View the complete August 5 article by Amber Phillips on The Washington Post website here.