Democrats’ emphasis on racist replacement theory, which presents minorities as an existential threat to white people, signals a shift in how they respond to gun violence. While previous mass shootings prompted calls to vote for most Republicans to oppose gun legislation, Democrats are now trying to hold Republicans to account for the discriminatory arguments the Buffalo shooter allegedly made in a diatribe he wrote before attacking a grocery store.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) set the tone Monday. While Schumer said focusing on shooter rhetoric is no substitute for enhanced background checks for gun purchases, he made it clear that the most urgent response must be to “stand up to the old poisons.” racism and white supremacy that have been with us for too long. ”
And he hasn’t been shy about linking his efforts to the Donald Trump-era Republican Party, calling on all influential voices in America to “band together to crush opinions like the replacement theory.”
“These far-right MAGA Republicans argue that people of color and minority communities are somehow a threat to the American way of life. That’s replacement theory in a nutshell,” Schumer said.
Trump has faced multiple allegations of racist rhetoric during his four years in office, asking minority congressmen to ‘go back’ to where they came from, attacking a US-born ‘Mexican’ federal judge and pointing to “very good people on both sides” after a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Carlson has used his Fox News show to repeatedly invoke replacement theory-style rhetoric, including saying that in 2021 the Democratic Party is “trying to replace the current electorate, voters voting now, with new people , more obedient, Third World voters.”
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also spoke in the Senate to castigate Carlson as a “leading ideologue in the white supremacist movement.” Durbin said that as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he would soon hold a hearing on domestic terrorism and hoped the Senate could eventually pass legislation on the matter.
In an interview, Durbin said that at this point he was unsure whether the Senate should hold a vote on legislation to expand background checks that would not win the necessary GOP votes to overcome a filibuster: “I know the result.”
Instead, he turned to Carlson for “peddling these racist theories as a replacement theory… he should be ashamed of himself and the politicians who support him should be too.”
Not everyone in the Democratic Party was willing to go as far as Schumer and Durbin. Asked about the call from Republicans and Fox News on the replacement theory, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) replied, “Yeah. I’m not going to go that route. We will let them do that.
And Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) defended his previous efforts to expand background checks, but declined to weigh in on Schumer’s speech, saying simply that “we need a good bill” to prevent people with mental illness from obtaining firearms.
Republicans have firmly rejected the idea that their party’s rhetoric contributed to the weekend shooting. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Schumer’s remarks were “a vile attempt to use tragedy to score political points, I think,” while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Called the Democratic leader’s speech “sick.”
“At the same time you had a Chinese immigrant in California targeting Taiwanese. Who are we supposed to blame for that one? said Rubio. “Nobody is promoting a theory of going in and shooting a place. I don’t know anyone who has been called for this. And frankly, they turn everything into a political weapon.
The Buffalo supermarket shooting left 10 people dead and three injured, all but two of whom were black. And that wasn’t the only shoot to grab national attention this weekend. In Milwaukee, at least 21 people were injured in mass shootings, and one person was killed and five injured when a gunman opened fire on a church in Laguna Woods, California – the attack in which Rubio referenced.
Some members of Schumer’s caucus have come to his defense, pointing to past comments by sitting GOP lawmakers that portrayed illegal immigration as an invasion of America. That rhetoric drew criticism from the left and from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) that the GOP was getting too close to the replacement theory.
“We’ve seen an integration of…explicitly racist philosophy,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Monday of Schumer’s remarks. ” The third [House] Republican [Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York] talks about it, it runs ads on Facebook. So it’s not Schumer raising that. It is Schumer who correctly observes what is happening.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), however, said he would “be very careful not to spread too much slander. Because not all Republicans engage in that kind of talk. But many do.”
“It’s not a secret, there is a very violent vicious underground [that] feeds off of this idea that immigrants, black people and Jews are a threat to the nation,” Murphy said.
While the Senate passed legislation last year to address hate crimes against Asian Americans, broader changes to address gun violence remain elusive. Despite bipartisan talks led by Murphy, there are still no 60 votes in the Senate to expand background checks. And even narrower legislation to help create so-called “red flag” laws, which grant authorities the ability to limit a person’s access to a firearm in the event of an imminent threat, is not budging.
Murphy argued that “we should put something on the floor that would have an impact and see where the votes are.”
“It could be a background check bill,” Murphy said, adding that a terrorist watch list bill could also be an important response. “This guy may not have been on the terrorism watch list, but we have a lot of dangerous potential criminals on that watch list who shouldn’t be able to buy guns.”
But in a 50-50 Senate where Democrats have been unable to muster majorities for an abortion rights bill or to remove the filibuster for federal election reform, some are wary of another failed gun vote. Schatz said it bluntly, “I don’t want to go through another round of pretending we can get 60 votes on this thing.”
And even if legislation proves impossible, Democrats have one option to help the Biden administration deal with gun violence that only requires 50 votes: confirming Steve Dettelbach as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco and firearms. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a hearing on his nomination before the chamber leaves for the Memorial Day recess, Durbin said.
Biden withdrew his former ATF nominee, David Chipman, amid opposition from Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). The Senate has only ever confirmed one permanent ATF director.
politico Gt