CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Unfortunately, you`re going to be covering it a lot more so thank you very much. That`s all we have for the night. We`ll be back tomorrow with more MEET THE PRESS DAILY. The Chuck ToddCast is on your feed now. Listen to that in your podcast. "THE BEAT" with Ari Melber starts right now.
Good evening Ari.
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, Chuck. Thank you and thanks to you at home for joining us. We have several important stories tonight and a fact check later on a new political effort to minimize white supremacy in America and we begin however, with this controversy greeting the President.
At this hour Donald Trump`s in El Paso. He`s visiting victims of this weekend`s deadly shooting. The second of two grieving cities that he visit today. In both huge outcries from many people, a plea that Donald Trump simply stay away so they could mourn with his attacks, without his bickering, without his tweeting feuds that use even a mass shooting, even this horror as a kind of a backdrop for more political Twitter Trumpism.
Let me read you a somber account. This is the lead in today`s New York Times telling you that your President began a day set aside for healing by delivering a series of political grievances against liberals and the media, once again using Twitter to exhibit the divisive language that`s prompted some in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio to protest his visits after horrific shootings in these cities.
This is a time that Americans know is not normal and as citizens confront these worst of horrors, we have to note that many and not just resistance folks, but many across the ideological spectrum here felt that if the President is going to break all decorum and rules, then they would break with some decorum too because look, let`s be clear, we can use clarity at times like this if nothing else.
Before Donald Trump, it was a widely held non-partisan tradition to welcome a President to any town, any place, any community rocked by this kind of murderous tragedy but these citizens were basically warning that Trump won`t provide comfort and they know that because of his actions.
Well, he`s now spent the last 2004 hours careening from one controversy to another proving his naysayers right. Protesters on the ground of both Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas today demonstrating against these visits while Trump continued to do all sorts of Trump stuff.
Attacking Beto O`Rourke, the New York Times, the Democrats and yes, why not, throw in the Mayor of one of the cities he`s visiting, all while claiming - claiming with this empty rhetoric, he`s there to bring people together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: What do you say to the critics that believe that it`s your rhetoric that is emboldening white nationalists and inspiring this anger?
DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So my critics are political people. They`re trying to make points. In many cases, they`re running for President and they`re very low in the polls. I think my rhetoric is a very - it brings people together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: It brings people together. This may be Trump trolling knowing that neither his supporters think that that`s his brand, his expectation, his priority and certainly he knows his critics don`t view him that way.
But again, I just mentioned and reported some of what he`s done. Then take this which you may not have heard about yet since it`s brand new. He goes to Ohio and then picks a new fight with someone who`s not running for President, who didn`t set out to battle with him.
Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown who actually went out of his way in yes, unity to go with Donald Trump to the hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): He was comforting and he did the right things and Melania did the right things and it`s his job in part to comfort people, people at the hospital were terrific and people showed when the President of United States came, they showed respect for the office and a number of them said to me, they`re not great admirers of him privately but they clearly showed respect for the office because the President of United States is in town.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: What did you just witness? Why is that even at the top of the news cast? What you just saw looks straight forward to the point of normal, to the point of what some might call routine. A senator telling everyone the President did what he was supposed to do.
The reason we have to play that is so you have the context for this. President Trump lashing out and saying that Brown who you just saw there basically give him some decent words was misrepresenting the visit and that news conference which we just showed you so you have the facts itself was some sort of `fraud.`
That is what had people turning out in 100 degree heat to tell Trump he wasn`t welcome in El Paso.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FERNANDO GARCIA, DIRECTOR, BORDER NETWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Trump is responsible and he`s part of the problem. He`s not welcome.
BETO O`ROURKE (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE :We live in a country where we have a President who demonizes communities like this one, who vilifies immigrants.
REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): There have been words that have been powerful and painful and full of hate and full of bigotry and full of racism.
O`ROURKE: El Paso, I am proud of you. El Paso, I love you. El Paso, we are bigger and better and greater than this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s part of the scene playing out tonight. Donald Trump`s anti- immigrant rhetoric and tendency to abuse rather than use these kind of ceremonial appearances is well known. But this week`s tragedy is also putting new scrutiny on Trump administration actions that may be somewhat less well known to many.
And which Donald Trump has actually been minimizing as he claims today, he might be open to some sort of new background checks law. Consider this fact check. You`re about to see the categories of dangerous gun buyers that now have an easier time getting guns because of tweaks by the Trump administration of federal rules.
People with mental disabilities. Fugitives, foreign buyers, all can get guns easier under changes by the Trump administration. Some parts of the gun debate are complex as we`ve covered. They touch on issues that implicate the constitution, civil liberties, people`s right to have something to defend themselves.
Other parts are pretty simple. Making it easier for fugitives to get their hands on guns is one of the dumbest, most dangerous policy changes the government can make. And under Trump, getting new scrutiny tonight, that`s exactly what your government did.
Before I turn to a wider panel tonight with special coverage from El Paso, I`m joined right here in New York by Paola Ramos, a former campaign aide to Hillary Clinton and host of Vices LatinX. Was very conversant with how we got here. Thanks for joining me.
PAOLA RAMOS, FORMER CAMPAIGN AIDE TO HILLARY CLINTON & HOST, VICES LATINX: Of course.
MELBER: I want to delve into what we just saw there. Your view of something that I don`t think even opponents of Donald Trump can take much pride in, which is organizing against what would be a normal ceremonial visit by a President. I`m sure you would welcome certain Republican Presidents even if you had disagreements with them.
You`ve run against Republicans but there are Republicans who could come mourn with you, yes?
RAMOS: Absolutely.
MELBER: What is the difference here and what do you think is important about it?
RAMOS: The difference here especially as we see those images of the President walking down the stair into El Paso, now the difference there is that there are a lot of people on both sides of the party that are seeing someone that is walking into his own crime scene.
I believe that he is someone that is walking into this crime scene with blood in his hand, right? And I see that because he has literally transformed El Paso, one of the most beautiful cities in this country, one of the most safest cities in this country into a battlefield. Why?
Because every time that he has used the word invasion, he has implicitly entitled his base way too premises to attack, to attack us so that is why what we`re seeing on these images, what we`re seeing on the screen is not normal because a lot of people see someone that is literally walking into their own mess, their own crime, their own slaughter house that he has created.
MELBER: Here he was today when asked about this and the embrace of some of these groups, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: How concerned are you about the rise of white supremacy and what are you going to do about it?
TRUMP: I am concerned about the rise of any group of hate. I don`t like it. Any group of hate whether it`s white supremacy, whether it`s any other kind of supremacy, whether it`s Antifa, whether it`s any group of hate, I am very concerned about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAMOS: I don`t think I have to say anything. I think it`s - it`s very clear that he is lying and I also do want to point out that as he is El Paso, right? Talking to these families, the largest ICE raids in the last 10 years is taking place right now, just a place in Mississippi. So he can show up, he can denounce hate, he can denounce white supremacists.
He also as he`s doing all of this just enacted one of the largest raids that we have seen in this country so he`s in my eyes and in many people`s eyes and in the victim`s eyes, a traitor.
MELBER: Paola, stay with me. I now want to broaden this discussion and bring in Christina Greer , a fans of this show, Political science Professor at Fordham University, Margaret Carlson columnist for The Daily Beast and from El Paso, Maria Hinojosa, anchor and executive producer of NPR`s Latino USA.
Maria, what are you seeing down there, what`s important based on your reporting?
MARIA HINOJOSA, ANCHOR & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, NPR`S LATINO USA: You know Ari, it`s problematic only because we`re spending so much time talking about 45 when there`s a part of me that really would love to be talking about the people who lost their lives here. The Mexicans, the Mexican- Americans, the other folks who - one German man who lost his life here but we`re talking about you know, the consequences of 45 coming down here but here`s what I will tell you.
From my reporting the senses is what I heard was somebody say, does he not think you that we know exactly what he feels towards us because what he has said about us, he has been repeating since July of 2015. So the words that they used to say about this visit was insulted and also that 45 was burlandose.
It`s a very Mexican word, that he was making fun of this situation because everybody knows regardless of how people in mainstream media and fellow journalists manages the people, here know and feel that he doesn`t like Mexicans, he doesn`t like Mexican-Americans, he doesn`t like Latinos, he doesn`t like immigrants.
And so if he comes down here for whatever time, that doesn`t make any of that go away. I also want to say that you know, we try to get here. So many streets are blocked off. It`s almost like there`s an attempt to blockade people from actually coming out to the protest.
Somebody else`s from around here just said, if he really wanted to show respect to what happened here, the scene of this tragedy is right here. And he could have come here. He is the President. He could have come right there and stood there and yet he stayed away because also behind me are the altars, are the protesters and they didn`t want him to see that.
So people here on the ground are feeling that and I think what`s going to happen is that they will find - they`re not going to come out and rally and protest because 45 is here. They`re going to decide on their own terms the way people from El Paso are.
And they`re going to say how are we going to decide. You know, will it be one day on the Sunday in the late evening when it`s not you know 105 degrees, when they come out dressing white and take to the streets, that might be more their style but it`s going to be on their terms not on another President`s terms.
MELBER: Talk to us a little bit more about that point because this is as you say a community that knows very well that Donald Trump went there and called it an invasion, a militarisk rhetoric and used the state of the Union to present the city as falsely more dangerous than it is.
All of this selective and sometimes blatantly lying invocation of risk. Risk that El Paso would pose towards everyone else. And here we are on a day when on in during this powder keg come under these terms. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The other thing that I heard Chris, totally unsolicited from victims still in the hospital as they grab my arm and tell me, tell him not to come here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would be wonderful that he showed up and actually did do that and actually did apologize for the language that he`s used, for the way that he`s talked about immigrants. The problem is I don`t think that he`s capable of doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Maria and then Christina.
HINOJOSA: So Ari, look, again I want to center kind of the humanity of this situation. I was in a funeral home yesterday with the family that lost their father, he was the last person to die apparently. This is a man who, what he`s learning - this is the son of the man who died and what he said is, I want us all to look at each other.
This is a very Mexican man. He lives in Mexico even though he`s a U.S. citizen. He said, I want us to learn how to look at each other and to see ourselves in each other. I`m pointing this out because there is a level of kind of political awareness that`s coming that maybe it`s not manifested in terms of Republican or Democrat.
But he was saying when I have an African neighbor, he`s me. When I have a Muslim neighbor, he`s me. They`re making these connections and also again Ari, very surprising to me because I know this region well.
More than once no Latinos, Mexican-Americans have brought up Puerto Rico and they have brought up Trump in relation to Puerto Rico and they`re saying we know what he did there, how he disrespected the people there. Now we`re just understanding that we have become a target because of his own words.
We`re making the connections now. That - that is a political dynamic that is fascinating.
MELBER: Right.
HINOJOSA: Sadly as a result of horrible tragedy.
MELBER: Christina.
CHRISTINA GREER, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: Well, I think picking up on Maria`s thread, I mean when we ask someone to see ourselves in them, I mean that is not only picking up from Dr. Martin Luther King, that`s also picking up from the Bible, which I think a lot of Americans fundamentally believe, that there needs to be some sort of Christian ethic that is missing with this particular President.
And we know that he is a coward. I mean Paola sort of mentioned him having to come to the crime scene that he`s created but he`s incapable of ever looking at anyone else`s humanity and having empathy. We`ve seen that even on Twitter when he`s en route from El Paso to Dayton, when he`s on Airforce One and he`s still tweeting about you know, elected officials and making fun of people.
So that`s just not possible and so I think you know, to really hit home what Maria was saying is how do we even translate this and center back to the people who are living in fear, not just because of ICE raids and immigration but because it seems as though no one is safe in America, especially people of color when the President fundamentally does not believe that any of us belong here and that we have rights to be citizens, documented or undocumented.
And so I think, for us now it`s how we translate this fear and this anger into a political power beyond just coalition building but really paying attention to the Republican Party members who are enabling this President to not only have this rhetoric but these dire consequences.
And so we have 2020 coming up and it`s not just about removing the President from office but making sure that the people who have been surrounding him to Mitch McConnell and friends, making sure that you know we don`t have protective gun laws, that Puerto Rico doesn`t get the funding that they need, that these ICE raids are fully funded.
All these policies that are affecting millions and millions of American men, women and children, documented and undocumented, the people living in this country. I think that`s the important piece where we have to channel some of this - some of these emotions of which there are several.
And unfortunately we know because the Republican Party has been so lax in actually putting forth policy, we do know that these things will happen again and the fear will just continue to grow. I mean the children that are growing up under this particular President will forever be changed because of what the horrors that they`ve had to experience, not just in their own personal lives but on television and social media constantly.
MELBER: Margaret.
MARGARET CARLSON, COLUMNIST, THE DAILY BEAST: Ari, the clip you showed of the El Paso residents saying well, maybe, if he`d said he was sorry and he came, that would have been better and there wouldn`t have been so many who didn`t want him to come.
And she said but he doesn`t have that within him. He doesn`t have it within him of course. He can`t even do that fake apology, I`m sorry if I caused you pain, I`m not - not that I`m sorry because I did. But he can`t do it because in fact, this is part of his platform going forward which is to dehumanize immigrants and call them invaders.
That are - that will sometimes inflame other people to shoot them. So he can`t apologize because he can`t do it.
MELBER: Let me give you a little more grist for the point you`re making because I think what you`re gesturing towards Margaret, is the notion of a day of mourning which is what it means to go visit the sites. There`s no day off for him and take a look here and a little bit more of his response when lightly pressed on some of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think illegal immigration is a terrible thing for this country. I think you to come in legally. Ideally, you have to come in through merit. We need people coming in because we have many companies coming into our country. They`re pouring in.
And I think illegal immigration is a very bad thing for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Margaret, making light only of myself and not the day, may I ask you a stupid question.
CARLSON: Oh please.
MELBER: Was that the right emphasis as he prepared to embark to grieving El Paso today.
CARLSON: Almost every word out of his mouth in the White House driveway before he got on the Marine One was disgraceful and hurtful and a lie and spreading blame otherwise to Beto O`Rourke and Joe Biden.
He practically blame the Dayton shooting on Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders because the Dayton shooter had expressed admiration for them in some tweet or other - you know something they wrote. Well, you know if that`s the case then it means that he`s responsible for the El Paso shooter because that shooter actually quoted Donald Trump to the fact that he was incited to kill 22 people.
And then the callousness of the first time his handlers let him out of their sight, he`s not under wraps and he gets on the plane at noon and he tweets an insult to Joe Biden saying how boring he is and how his ratings are down which is the only thing Trump cares about are ratings as if he`s still a reality star.
What callousness in between two devastated cities he`s got to go on a ran off to the side. There was nothing sincere in what he did today and in part it`s because, he can`t afford to be because what`s in his heart and what`s in his brain in order to win the election is not something he can reveal on a day of mourning.
But he will be back to revealing it any minute now.
MELBER: Yes, it`s really something to take hold of. We dedicated a full 20 minutes to this opening report and conversation because it matters. I got to fit in a break now. Paola Ramos, Christina Greer, Margaret Carlson and Maria Hinojosa, thanks to each of you. We do appreciate it.
Coming up, we`ll be joined by one of the organizers of these protests. Again, a ground view of why we`re seeing such push back. Also as we think about gun safety in America, is there a turning point? Emotional demonstrations at McConnell`s office. Pressure for new laws.
Later I`m going to fact check a Trump ally who says that America doesn`t have a white supremacy problem and discussing it is "a hoax." And later reaction to Trump`s rhetoric on race from 2020 rivals. I`m Ari Melber. You`re watching THE BEAT on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: President Trump continuing his controversial approach to these mass shootings, picking fights with rival, visiting El Paso where this hour he`s been greeted as we`ve been covering with these somewhat unusual protests for a Presidential visit as well as political and civic leaders making clear, they don`t view him as welcome.
Take a look at the latest El Paso Times which greets Donald Trump with a fact check reminding citizens, he used his highly watched State of the Union address to falsely label El Paso, one of the most dangerous cities.
They are clapping back saying Mr. President, that`s not El Paso and one of the organizers of the El Paso protest saying this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARCIA: Trump is responsible and he must be accountable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That was Fernando Garcia, Director of the Border Network for Human Rights who joins me now live from El Paso. Good evening on a immeasurably tough week. So as we say always, our thoughts and prayers are with this community and you. What can you tell us about what you are trying to achieve today?
Garcia: Thanks for having me. There`s two things that we actually we say today. The first thing is that El Paso is proud. We are a community that is unified and today we had more than 3000 people that gathered together from different parts of our community, immigrant families, elected officials, all of us saying that we are proud of our history.
We will continue to be an open city for immigrants and refugees. We have opened our community, our homes so that if a very unifying message. But the second one, the message that we actually displayed today, almost everybody is that Mr. Trump is not welcome in this community because of what he represents.
I mean, he represents something that has created so much damage in our community already.
MELBER: Yes and you mentioned that. Take a listen to Congresswoman Veronica Escobar on some of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ESCOBAR: He`s not welcome here. He should not come here while we are in mourning. Today`s visit is more of a photo op and again, more of using El Paso as a prop. I refuse to participate as a prop, as an accessory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: This notion of a prop which of course makes us think of theater. Guest earlier this hour talking about the President looking at this only through the prism of ratings and reality show and theater but since you`re here, let`s talk a little bit about the facts.
Despite the President`s invocations of El Paso as I mentioned, when we look at the actual crime rate, we don`t see it to be high. Indeed it`s lower than many similar cities. That`s not something that Americans are thinking about on a daily basis.
In your view how much is the community been thinking and feeling about that in the past year when Trump is clearly demagogued this particular place which is now grieving.
GARCIA: You know, he came a few months ago to El Paso with a distorted reality and narrative of our - of our community. El Paso is the safest city of the nation, one of the safest cities of the nation, safer than Washington DC.
But in one day what was killed in El Paso than the rest of the year. In a whole year, we have under 15 murders in El Paso. So this is something that we can understand. I mean in the - in the killer and the shooter, the terrorist came from outside of El Paso, didn`t belong to our community but also he was following the guidelines and the messages of this President.
MELBER: Well, you just put it in such a straightforward way which again goes back to who`s really at risk, where is the threat coming from as you say, it came outside El Paso to attack peaceful people, allegedly based on simply who they are. Fernando Garcia, thank you for telling us about what you`ve been working on tonight, I appreciate it.
GARCIA: Thank you.
MELBER: Yes Sir. Up next, we have an important fact check on a new defense to white supremacy with Maya Wiley when we`re back in just 30 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: Now we turn to the facts you need to know as America reckons with renewed discussions of white supremacy and terror in the wake of El Paso. Some of the politics can get in the way of the facts because some of Trump`s allies are now falsely denying that white supremacy itself is a problem in America.
Fox`s Tucker Carlson kicking up a firestorm this week with new comments claiming white supremacy is just a hoax.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: If you were to assemble, a list a hierarchy of concerns or problems this country faces, why would white supremacy be on the list? Right up there with Russia probably, it`s actually not a real problem in America. White supremacy, that`s the problem. This is a hoax just Russia hoax. It`s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power. That`s exactly what`s going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Now to the facts. Assembling a list of problems in America isn`t hypothetical. Pollsters ask Americans to do it on the regular. They find Americans think terrorism is a problem. It pulls number one. 73 percent of Americans saying it is a priority above the economy and even immigration.
So Americans think terrorism is a big problem on their hierarchy of concerns. And who`s trying to commit this terrorism here? Most people in the U.S. suspected of terrorism right now are linked to white nationalism, facts. That`s the testimony from Donald Trump`s hand-picked FBI director who testified under oath. Most domestic terrorism arrests this year involved white supremacy.
So the feds including the Trump-appointed feds say that the problem we have with terrorism mostly involves white nationalists. So that exists, facts. Now, as a matter of fatalities which is also counter to the United States, the problem is on par with foreign terrorists like ISIS. Domestic ideological terrorists kill about as many Americans as those scary foreign linked terrorists.
So those are just some receipts for the hoax crowd. And that is based on the most extreme examples of suspects and violence. If you brought an out to include and consider hate speech, other white supremacists activity, some of which might be technically legal, like there are things you can say that are horrific which are a crime. Well then pile that together and you have and this is important as America has this debate, a pile of evidence online and on your local news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The news hanging from a small tree in front of a dorm at Stanford.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A family and Aurora wakes up to find an anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on their home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An Army veteran who police say is an admitted white supremacist has been charged with murder as a hate crime in the stabbing death of a black man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FBI says they`ve arrested a white supremacist. After he purchased a gun from an undercover FBI agent in Myrtle Beach and said he wanted to use it in the spirit of Dylann Roof.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A 21-year-old man is facing three years in federal prison for his role inverting and spray-painting Nazi symbols on a Carmel synagogue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White supremacist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White supremacy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White supremacist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White supremacist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: This is America. If you feel like some of the hate and violence is rising, it is. Data backing up those anecdotes you just heard. The number of documented hate groups has jumped now to over 1,000. And this real problem will not be conquered by minimizing it against the evidence nor would it be solved by exaggerating it without evidence.
In the law hate crime probes are actually complex because it can take longer to investigate motive and intent. Authorities cannot profile by mere politics, of course, any more than by any other mere categories. So there`s no logic in rushing to label just anything white supremacy before gathering facts. And there is no logic in denying the facts we have and just shouting hoaxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: This is a hoax, just like the Russia hoax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: This is not a hoax. This is America. And many Americans have been telling us this for a long painful time. Americans who live through slavery and the amendments that were literally added to our Constitution to thwart, what was it, white supremacy? This is America, Americans who fought Jim Crow and segregation in the civil rights battles.
This is America, Americans who urged us to look inward at a culture that can celebrate guns more than human lives or revere guns in white hands more than the bodies of murdered minorities. That`s what Donald Glover told us so simply and so sadly and we should reflect on it tonight. This is America, guns in my area, I got this strap I got to carry them.
Joining me now is Maya Wiley former Council of the Mayor of New York. She oversaw the city`s police oversight agency, and also here former Congressman Tom Coleman Republican from Missouri. Thanks to both of you. Maya, your view of this.
MAYA WILEY, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: What Tucker Carlson did was absolutely reprehensible because it is as you pointed out not true. And by not true I mean he just lied to the American people, to his own audience.
All the facts from the FBI to the Southern Poverty Law Center, to the anti- defamation league has been documenting the increase of hate groups and particularly white supremacist groups as well as hate crimes.
Two points to reference to if you look at the two highest months of hate crimes is in the history of our tracking the crimes, November 2016 was over 700 hate crimes that month. That was a record. That was the election. The second was after Charlottesville when Donald Trump said you have very fine people on both sides.
And the reason I say that, it is the denial of the existence of hate groups and the hate they propagate that helps support the increase of violence. There is evidence, there is research that has actually correlated that kind of refusal to denunciate to say no, we don`t do that here. That is not tolerated with the actual events of violence that we see in this country.
MELBER: Congressman, do you worry at this point that the basic facts we just laid out, Americans are concerned about terrorism, most domestic terrorism suspects are linked to white supremacy, the sources there are federal data including Trump`s own FBI director, that has become a part of a political project -- I want to be very clear of some, not all, but of some of the President`s defenders to minimize or lie about those facts?
TOM COLEMAN (R), FORMER CONGRESSMAN OF MISSOURI: Well, there`s certainly evidence of that, Ari. A whole host of leaders from the Congress got on T.V. after these terrible episodes that we just saw and said it was because of video games, that video games was the cause of all this. Such a nonsense like this. The entire world has videogames, they don`t crimes like this.
MELBER: Well, let me press you on this. Let me press you on that now because we`ve covered that. Video games is what about-ism, that`s look at something else.
COLEMAN: Yes.
MELBER: What we`re covering is people trying to within a certain frame get other people to think yes, white supremacy, what is that about? That -- maybe that`s "not a big deal" all the way out to "a hoax" when the numbers show the opposite.
COLEMAN: Well, I think the American people and I think the vast majority of the American people know what racism is. They understand what`s happening here. This is a defining moment not only in this political campaign, but in the history of this country.
I believe that Donald Trump has done himself much harm politically. I think you will see polls, it will come back that the vast majority of Americans see this what it is. The man has no credibility. He spews hate. He did it when he came down the escalator in 15, and he hasn`t stopped since.
They are not going to vote for a racist. They`re not going to vote for somebody like this. Maybe they didn`t know what he was like before, but they know now. So let`s see how this plays out. But we have got to stand strong. We`ve got several issues here. We`ve got guns --
MELBER: Yes, I`m going to jump in. I mean, part of it -- part of what is playing out right, Maya, is a moving of some of these goalposts. So the effort to try to take folks and confuse them about what it is, which is very extreme.
I mean, if you`re out here trying to do any cover for terrorism suspects, I don`t care what they`re linked to, you`ve got to really look in the mirror. And then I want to -- I want to play for you what Rush Limbaugh says which whatever one thinks of the source, he is voicing something that is a different argument that hey there are plenty of people who are registered in Republican Party or who were voting for this or that who aren`t racists, or who voted for Obama or whatever, and whether this paints too broad a brush in the other direction. Take a listen.
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RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO HOST: The vast majority of this country do not believe Donald Trump or you or me are white supremacists. They don`t believe that we are in favor of white nationalism. But the drive-by media is trying to once again convince everybody that everybody thinks of Trump that way.
They then act and behave as though everybody thinks this, and that you Conservatives and Trump, you have to show us that you are not which is impossible. It`s like proving a negative. You can`t do it.
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WILEY: Well, that`s not true. You absolutely can prove you`re not racist, usually by your actions and by your words. And I think what we`ve seen from Donald Trump and unfortunately and I think to your point, to Mr. Coleman not new but perfected in a very dangerous way.
I would say perfected in the sense of being very explicit as opposed to implicit, is this use of blacks or criminals, right, or Latinos are invaders. This is very explicit language that white supremacy uses --
MELBER: Or Muslims are terrorists.
WILEY: Muslims are terrorists.
MELBER: So you`re taking something that was really lethally powerful in a certain immigration framework and all of a sudden it`s blowing up in their face.
WILEY: That`s right. And here`s the point. When you track the language of white supremacist groups, they use languages that language like invasion for immigrants of the color from Central America. Not all immigrants. Not -- they don`t use invasion for Polish. So it`s very racialized language even when it doesn`t use the terms of race.
And my point about Donald Trump is what he has done is said it is now OK. I am now going to use language we never as Republicans thought was OK to use in the past to have a policy debate in the recent past.
MELBER: All right, Maya Wiley and Congressman Tom Coleman, an important discussion on the facts. Thanks to both of you. When we come back, you`re going to see these new protest erupting outside of Senator McConnell`s office about gun control, and 2020 Democrats challenging him on his guts. A Republican congressman also now backing an assault weapons ban, is the NRA`s political standing in question, next.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There`s a great appetite and I mean a very strong appetite for background checks and I think we can bring up background checks like we`ve never had before. I`ll be convincing some people to do things that they don`t want to do and that means people in Congress.
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MELBER: President Trump offering some double-talk on gun safety as he left Washington today. Trump is close to the NRA and he`s taken several actions as we`ve been reporting to reduce gun safety in office. But the pressure is building from those mourning in Ohio today.
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AMERICAN CROWD: Do something! Do something! Do something!
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MELBER: It`s becoming a theme because that was the chant that Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine hear days ago which got him acting.
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GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Some chanted "do something" and they were absolutely right. Individuals could be subject to a safety protection order if they present an imminent risk of injury to themselves, suicide for example, or they present that risk to another person.
I`m asking the General Assembly to pass a law that requires background checks for all firearm sales in the state of Ohio.
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MELBER: Could the NRA`s holding the Republican Party be breaking a little bit? NRA backed Congressman Mike Turner, a Republican who represents Dayton, Ohio is now coming out for a ban on assault weapons which he says unleash intolerable carnage.
Protests are erupting out of Mitch McConnell`s office over blocking votes and calls to vote on those gun control bills that speaker Pelosi already moves to the House.
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REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Come on Mitch McConnell, I mean, where are your guts? Get your cool yawns, OK, grab them, and do something. Because the American people are fed up with you. We`re fed up with you stonewalling everything. People are dying on the streets just a couple hours from your house, and you`re sitting there and doing nothing.
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MELBER: I`m joined by Alicia Menendez, co-host of Amanpour and Company on PBS and Contributing Editor at Bustle. What shift if any do you see here?
ALICIA MENENDEZ, CO-HOST, AMANPOUR AND COMPANY: I mean, it`s a shift that in some regards we`ve seen before. So for example, here in Florida, after the Parkland shooting, you had Governor Scott coming out and saying all options were on the table. He did end up with legislation that raised the age of purchase from 18 to 21, a three-day limit -- a three day waiting period was instituted. You had a ban on the sale of bump stocks. What you didn`t have was a limit on the availability of assault weapons.
So if you look at DeWine`s 17-point plan here, interestingly it does include background checks but similarly no mention of assault weapons. You then look at what Turner is coming out and saying -- he`s saying he would vote for a ban on assault weapons but then no mention of background checks.
So in many ways, Ari, the devil is in the details in terms of what can actually get done. Also of interests that you know, DeWine has to persuade his Republican-led legislature to actually follow his lead here.
HAYES: Yes, and he under a certain kind of pressure as governor that others may be able to talk if everyone sort of moves on locally or nationally. Here`s a Republican in Nebraska weighing in. Take a look.
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SEN. JOHN MCCOLLISTER (R), NEBRASKA: The NRA is weaker today not because they`re having this infighting at the board level but because they`re hemorrhaging members.
This country`s become so polarized that people are reluctant to speak out. And I`m particularly disappointed in Republican officeholders for allowing President Trump to say some of the hateful things that he`s said. And I think it`s time for them to stand up for a change and make it known that they don`t condone that kind of hateful speech.
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MELBER: That`s Republican John McCollister. Is the correlation here very, very grim which is only certain Republicans in certain states where there are mass shootings that get mass media attention?
MENENDEZ: I think that`s part of the equation. I think at the end of the day you and I know that if you want to see action in the Senate on this, it comes down to Mitch McConnell and whether or not he wants to proceed with some of the votes the Democrats have asked for.
I think what we`re going to see is a fight brewing over whether or not these red flag laws are enough. Democrats are calling them a half measure saying that they don`t want to just pass legislation that focuses on that, that it let`s Republicans off the hook on background checks, and that seems like the fight that is brewing.
And what we also know is that right now the country`s attention is on at this issue. This is the moment in which there is the greatest chance of legislative action. We`ve seen these moments come. We`ve seen them go. I think the real wild card here is President Trump.
I mean, he has been inconsistent on this question. There is an argument to be made that he now holds more sway over his party than the NRA. If he were to be consistent on this, it could change the game.
MELBER: Alicia Menendez, thank you. Next, some 2020 Democrats now getting attention for the way they`re going at Trump over these shootings.
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MELBER: We are looking at brand-new video of President Trump visiting the emergency operations center. This is part of his law enforcement meetings in El Paso on this very controversial visit. Let`s listen in.
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TRUMP: -- the office of the presidency. It was -- I wish you could have been in there to see it. I wish you could have been in there. It was no different here. We went to the hospital. We just came from the hospital. We were there a lot longer than we were anticipated to be. It was supposed to be just a fairly quick.
We met with numerous people. We met with also the doctors, the nurses, the medical staff. They have done an incredible job. Both places, just incredible. And the enthusiasm, the love, the respect, and also the (INAUDIBLE), let`s see if we can get something done. And Republicans want to do it, and Democrats want to do it.
And by the way, here is a great hero. This man, the job he did. You all know who he is, everybody. The whole world knows who you are now, right. You could be a movie star, the way you look. That will be -- that will be next. Who knows, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
TRUMP: But what with a job. What a job you did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir.
TRUMP: There are a lot of heroes. There are a lot of people. A lot of people did incredible work. Now we`re going in and say hello to some of your folks. This is one of the most respected men in law enforcement and I want to thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, you said today was about human (INAUDIBLE) and you attacked a number of your critics like Vice President Biden, Senator Brown, Mayor Whaley, as well various members of the media. Can you explain --
TRUMP: Well, they shouldn`t be politicking. They shouldn`t be politicking today. I had it with Sherrod Brown, he and the mayor, Nan Whaley. They asked could we possibly go in, could we possibly go in and make the tour with you. I said yes, let`s do it.
They couldn`t believe what they saw, and they said it to people. They`ve never seen anything like it. The entire hospital, no different than what we had in El Paso. The entire hospital was, I mean, everybody was so proud of the job they did because they did a great job. They did a great job here.
And then I say goodbye. I took them in at their request. We made the tour. They couldn`t believe it. She said it to people. He said it to people. I get on Air Force One where they do have a lot of televisions. I turn on the television, and there they have saying, well, I don`t know if it was appropriate for the President to be here. You know, et cetera, et cetera. You know, the same old line.
They`re very dishonest people and that`s why I think he probably got I think about zero percent and failed as a presidential candidate. We`re going to go in and see some very great people. And I wanted to meet this hero before I did anything. And we appreciate it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, press.
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MELBER: We`ve been listening to President Trump here. You`re looking at live pictures. This is at an emergency facility here as he speaks with law enforcement in El Paso. He also held a bit of a brief impromptu Q&A with some of the reporters who are in what is relatively a small room. You`re looking at our reel footage there, which gets rougher as they`re escorting the president out.
No big headlines, but the President made a point of basically trying to rebut a reporter who asked about his alleged politicking. The president turning that around and re-airing some of his criticism, political in nature, of Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Senator out there, something we discussed early in the hour as well as Joe Biden.
So that is the way Donald Trump has wrapped up much of this busy and controversial day. We wanted to show you that as it came in. Now, the other thing I want to tell you before we go tonight is we`re living in a week where much of America has been upended by this weekend`s mass shootings.
And that would include as we just heard from the President going toe to do with Biden, that would include American politics. And the Democrats right now, as Donald Trump now, of course, are speaking out on the shootings and basically trying to weave it into somber events on the campaign trail.
Cory Booker is at Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina. That`s, of course, the predominantly black church where a white supremacist, convicted murderer Dylann Roof killed nine people in 2015. Booker invoking Trump`s climate of anti-immigrant hate, while today Joe Biden, who the president just name-checked was speaking in Iowa along similar lines.
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SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: YOU reap what you sow. The act of anti-Latino, anti-immigrant hatred we witnessed this past weekend did not start with the hand that pulled the trigger.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It`s both clear language and in code. This president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. How far is it from Trump saying this is an invasion to the shooter in El Paso declaring, "this attack is a response to Hispanic invasion of Texas. How far apart our president has more in common with George Wallace than he does with George Washington?
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MELBER: That is strong rhetoric and unusual for the vice president. It`s part of the heat we`re seeing come out of this week. The other thing coming out of this week are stories that would normally be much bigger, if not obviously for the import of what we`ve been covering. And here is an update on one.
The House Judiciary Committee going to court today. Jerry Nadler, the chairman, filing a new lawsuit that is asking a federal court to now force Donald Trump`s White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify. He`s one of the most crucial and most cited witnesses in that obstruction case laid out in the Mueller report, over 500 references. So that`s a sign of Congress acting while on recess.
Thanks for watching THE BEAT tonight. That does it for us. "HARDBALL" is up next.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END