TRUMP USES KIRK KILLING TO SOW DIVISION

FORD FOUNDATION MORE DANGEROUS THAN NEO-NAZIS

If Donald Trump were serious about cracking down on domestic terrorism, after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, he'd call Kathleen Belew and Christopher Wray.

Belew, a Northwestern University professor, author and expert on violent white power extremists, has written about the organized white racists' groups, often prepared to strike. These include neo-Nazis, remnants of the Ku Klux Klan, the Proud Boys, right wing religious bigots, and simple hate mongers.

Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for more than seven years until he was illicitly fired this year so Trump could appoint a political loyalist, Kash Patel, warned that right wing extremists pose the biggest domestic terrorism threats. Wray said the January 6 insurrectionists engaged in "criminal behavior" that was "domestic terrorism." Trump pardoned these insurrectionists.

Of course Trump won't call them. This is cheap politics not a serious effort to tamp down violence. Trump only is interested in political gain, setting a phony narrative that this is about left wing extremists and that right wing extremists are merely harmless "crazies." His followers are openly calling for a war, seeking retribution against "they" -- whoever they are -- for the Kirk killing.

Take Vice President Vance who talks about "civility" and "national unity." Then he says it's all about lefties and attacks, with false charges, George Soros and the Ford Foundation. The threat of violence really is more about Soros and the Ford Foundation than the Proud Boys or white nationalists?

As well as dirty what Trump and his enforcer, Stephen Miller, are pushing is dangerous. Miller, who articulates hate even better than his boss, charges the left wingers have a "vast domestic terror movement" that leads "inevitably [...] to violence." He vows to use every instrument of the federal government to "destroy these networks [...] in Charlie's name."

This is an egregious distortion.

The 22 year-old accused of killing Kirk apparently adopted left wing views. The man who shot House Republican leader Steve Scalise a few years ago was a radical left wing extremist.

At the same time the man who violently attacked Paul Pelosi, trying to get to his wife, the Speaker of the House, was not a left wing extremist nor was the man who assassinated the former Speaker of the Minnesota House or the man who torched Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence.

The same Washington Republicans, who say Kirk represented a free exchange of ideas, are calling for cracking down on even criticism of Kirk's views. They want to use this as an opening to go after the tax status of groups they disagree with.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that any foreigners celebrating the Kirk violence will be prohibited from coming to America. I imagine this is a very small group, but wonder if he'd apply the same measure against anyone celebrating the killing of Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman?

The reality is that political violence in America crosses ideological and partisan lines. Perpetrators usually share one commonality: they're mentally disturbed.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk was horrific; you don't have to agree with his views to find this abhorrent and feel heartbroken for two small children he left behind. It is causing emotional traumas, even a crisis.

During any sort of crisis, most American leaders have struck a unifying, calming tone. Ronald Reagan, after the death of the Challenger astronauts, Bill Clinton reacting to the deadly Oklahoma City bombing, George W. Bush after 9-11 and Barack Obama singing Amazing Grace at Charleston's Mother Emanuel AME Church after nine parishioners were slaughtered.

Trump doesn't have that spirit of compassion in him, he's a natural divider, a hater. He said he "couldn't care less" about unifying the country. It's mind-boggling that he rails against the inflammatory rhetoric of his critics like calling him a fascist. He has called the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City a "Communist," Kamala Harris a "Marxist" and Barack Obama not a real American.

This is dangerous. Trump and his gang are escalating, not tamping down, the possibilities of more violence as they trade on the Kirk tragedy.