DEMS/ELECTION/RACISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Democratic presidential candidates lashed President Trump on Wednesday [8-7-19] with their sternest denunciations yet of his exploitation of racism for political purposes and resistance to gun control, in a day of biting criticism that also highlighted differences between Democrats over how best to understand the recent rise of hate crimes in America. More than ever, it was clear that last weekend’s massacres in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, had put Mr. Trump on the defensive and added fierce new urgency to Democratic efforts to engineer his ouster. Mr. Trump has not accounted for the echoes of his own rhetoric about immigrants and minorities in the manifesto composed by the anti-immigrant gunman in Texas, and he has appeared far more focused on feuding with his critics than on striking a tone of healing.”
–Alexander Burns and Katie Glueck, “Biden and Booker Say Trump Is Fostering Hatred, Not Fighting It,” The New York Times online, August 7, 2019