Donald Trump has time to tweet about the Oscars and the cable news shows, but he doesn’t apparently have time to tweet about the hate crime in Kansas or the widespread targeting of Jewish community centers. We begin today’s roundup with an editorial from The Kansas City Star:
At some point, embarrassingly late begins to verge on something more disquieting.
President Donald Trump has silently planted himself in that space.
Nearly a week has passed since two India-born engineers were singled out and shot at an Olathe bar, presumably because they were immigrants, darker in skin tone and possibly viewed by the shooter as unwanted foreigners.
People around the world were immediately and rightfully horrified.
But our president? Mum. Not a word has been spoken, tweeted or prepped for Trump’s teleprompter. [...]
Tuesday night, the country and the world will be watching when Trump addresses a joint session of Congress. He should use the opportunity to thoughtfully —and belatedly — address this brazen act of violence.
Because with each passing day, Trump’s silence is even more telling.
The New York Times:
Mr. Trump’s denunciations of and policies targeting Mexicans, Muslims and others have reawakened and energized the demons of bigotry. Hate crimes and other incidents of bias have flared up, as documented by many news organizations. Mr. Kuchibhotla’s murder is one end of a continuum of hate. Elsewhere, people have defiled or threatened violence at Jewish cemeteries and synagogues.
Mr. Trump has been shockingly slow to condemn these acts of hate. [...]
Each act of hate is easily explained away as the work of a disturbed person. Yet, had these attacks been perpetrated by a Muslim or an undocumented immigrant, the president would surely have claimed that he was right all along.
Rather than tamp down hate, the president has stoked it.