UPDATE, AUGUST 8:

I spoke with BBC Radio Foyle on Thursday morning about how Donald Trump’s photo-opportunity visits to El Paso and Dayton turned into a story of the demonstrations in grieving communities — and of Trump’s continued insults of local leaders, Democrats, and the media.

There’s also a discussion of why the link between Trump’s anti-immigrant language and that of the El Paso suspect, Patrick Crusius, is not paralleled by the suspected Dayton attacker Conor Betts when he calls himself a “Satanist” and “socialist”.

Listen frpm 1:16.07

The people of these two cities have suffered from the mass shootings that have plagued the US — that’s where the priority should be. And the priority should be on a constructive dialogue on gun control and preventing these shootings.

But that’s not Trump’s motive.

See TrumpWatch, Day 930: Trump’s Mass Killings Photo Op Turns Into Twitter Insults


ORIGINAL ENTRY: AUGUST 5: David Dunn and I spoke with a series of BBC outlets and Ireland’s RTE on Monday about the El Paso and Dayton mass killings, and how Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant language may have empowered the attacker, white supremacist Patrick Crusius, in Texas.

Listen to Scott Lucas on BBC World Service from 31:47

Rather than responsible discussions from the top, you have a leader of the United States who — possibly not tomorrow but the day after or the day after that — will go back to saying certain people hate America, whether it’s immigrants, whether it’s people of color, whether it’s Democrats.

When you use that language of hate, that does have a poisonous effect.

See EA on CNN: Trump, Hate Speech, and Mass Killings in El Paso and Dayton

Listen to David Dunn on BBC Scotland from 1:09:12

“There’s a clear linkage to the language of Donald Trump here. It’s not a coincidence.”

Listen to Scott Lucas on RTE 1’s Morning Ireland

You’ve got a multi-cultural society in that area of Texas. You’ve got people shopping and leading their lives. And this gunman decided that this multi-cultural society was not something that can be tolerated.

Listen to Scott Lucas with BBC Foyle from 7:33

The interview also discusses why many Americans cling to objections to gun control, as well as the power of money and the National Rifle Association.

How much damage do you take? How many thousands, tens of thousands die because people can “bear arms” and tote semi-automatic weapons? And what happens in the 21st century when you have a politician who says immigrants are invading America or people of color live in rat-infested cities and someone picks up that language?