Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Wednesday in the wake of another politically motivated shooting that President Trump has been “totally deficient” in toning down divisive political rhetoric that has contributed to such attacks.
“It has to come from the top, and like on so many other things, Donald Trump is deficient in this, totally deficient,” the New York Democrat said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Mr. Schumer’s interview came as news about the latest politically motivated shooting — at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Dallas — was still breaking so he was not commenting on the president’s response to that.
But he spoke about Mr. Trump’s response to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying he spent the day after the shooting, while a manhunt for a suspect was still under way, placing blame on the left “instead of just bringing Americans together to mourn.”
“Donald Trump’s busy pointing fingers before he even had evidence,” Mr. Schumer said. “That doesn’t help.”
The Washington Times has reached out to the White House for comment.
Mr. Schumer said he did not yet know everything that happened at the ICE office in Dallas but condemned the violence as “just terrible.”
“Everybody, right, left, center, I don’t care what your politics are, has to speak out strongly against it,” he said.
The Senate’s top Democrat acknowledged he did not know what weapon was used in the ICE office shooting but took the opportunity to advocate for “better laws on guns.”
“We got something done a few years ago, but it’s just rampant, and we have to do more,” he said. “I’m the author of the Brady Law, the assault weapons ban. It’s become almost every day one of these things happen, and we can’t just sit there and do nothing.”
Mr. Schumer said he believes there’s interest among “more of the more mainstream non-MAGA people on the Republican side” to consider legislative solutions and that he hopes the “horrible” violence in Dallas and elsewhere “brings people together to do something.”
“There are many more things we can do about gun trafficking, about who sells the guns, how they get the guns,” he said. “There are things we can do without impinging on the rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns.”
The shooting at the ICE office in Dallas left two migrant detainees dead and another in critical condition. The shooter, whom authorities have yet to identify, took his own life.
Federal authorities described the incident as “targeted violence” after they found unfired ammunition near the shooter’s body with “Anti ICE” written on a casing.
“This vile attack was motivated by hatred for ICE,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. “This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences.”
— Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.