Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
DOJ Categorizes El Paso Shooting As Domestic Terror Attack; Incident Calls Into Question Trump's Anti-Immigration Rhetoric
The Wall Street Journal: White Nationalists Pose Challenge To Investigators
The shootings in Texas and Ohio that killed at least 29 people over the weekend left authorities searching for how to confront the challenges posed by mass violence and domestic terrorism, especially attacks driven by white-nationalist ideologies. Violence committed by white men inspired by an extremist ideology makes up a growing number of domestic terrorism cases, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of about 850 current domestic terrorism cases, 40% involve racially motivated violent extremism and a majority of those cases involve white supremacists, the FBI said. (Frosh, Elinson and Gurman, 8/4)
The Washington Post: Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Looms Over El Paso Massacre
President Trump has relentlessly used his bully pulpit to decry Latino migration as “an invasion of our country.” He has demonized undocumented immigrants as “thugs” and “animals.” He has defended the detention of migrant children, hundreds of whom have been held in squalor. And he has warned that without a wall to prevent people from crossing the border from Mexico, America would no longer be America. “How do you stop these people? You can’t,” Trump lamented at a May rally in Panama City Beach, Fla. Someone in the crowd yelled back one idea: “Shoot them.” The audience of thousands cheered and Trump smiled. Shrugging off the suggestion, he quipped, “Only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement.” (Rucker, 8/4)
Politico: Trump Rhetoric Freshly Condemned After Mass Shootings
The president made no mention of white supremacism on Sunday and focused instead on mental illness. He also didn't say anything about the critics laying blame at his feet, but appeared to allude to it by noting that “this has been going on for years. For years and years in our country.” He demurred when asked what his administration planned to do about the shootings. He said he would be making a statement on Monday morning, though Trump has always struggled with the role of a president who consoles the nation during tragedies like these. (Oprysko, 8/4)
The Washington Post: El Paso Shooting Suspect Could Face Federal Hate Crime Charges
“We are treating [the El Paso shooting] as a domestic terrorism case and we’re going to do what we do to terrorists in this country, which is deliver swift and certain justice,” said John F. Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, at a news briefing. He said the possible charges — including hate crimes and firearms charges — could carry a death sentence. (Gowen, Berman, Craig and Natanson, 8/4)
The Washington Post: FBI Faces Skepticism Over Its Anti-Domestic Terror Efforts
The FBI insists it is fully engaged in combating the threat of violence from white supremacists, but some former federal officials charge that the government is still coming up short in the face of a strain of American terrorism that now seems resurgent. The weekend massacre at a Walmart and shopping center in El Paso has focused public debate once again on the issue, after federal prosecutors called it an act of domestic terrorism. (Barrett, 8/4)
CNN: The FBI Director Ordered The Agency's Field Offices To Scour The Country For Mass Shooting Threats
Field offices will be actively working to identify threats similar to the attacks last week at local food festival in California, a Walmart in Texas, and an entertainment district in Ohio, the sources said. A command group at the bureau's Washington headquarters will oversee the effort, the sources said. The agency said it was concerned that US-based domestic violent extremists could become inspired by the attacks to "engage in similar acts of violence." (Maxouris, Campbell and Perez, 8/5)
USA Today: 'Enough Is Enough': Cloudfare Terminates 8chan, An Online Meeting Place For 'Extremist Hate'
The online message board 8chan, which has been linked to three mass shootings in 2019, will be terminated, Cloudfare announced late Sunday night, just hours after the site's founder called for its end. Cloudfare will cut off services for 8chan at midnight PDT, CEO Matthew Prince said in a statement, though he noted that another network provider could bring 8chan back online. That's what happened in 2017, when Cloudfare booted The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi message board. (Culver and Lam, 8/4)
Vox: Here’s How Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, And 8chan Handle White Supremacist Content
In less than 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday, two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have left at least 29 people dead. The back-to-back massacres are raising questions about the role of social media platforms in spreading content that promotes violence and white supremacist ideologies. Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have been slow to take action against white supremacist users and posts on their platforms, but over the past year, they finally began taking a series of actions and implementing some policy changes that target this kind of content. It doesn’t seem to be working yet. (Ghaffary, Molla and Stewart, 8/4)
