president trump i don't think is a person that will get us there. >> we will end on remembering those people who lost their lives in dayton and el paso so that perhaps the response that americans have had to these things in the past will come true. these are the people who lost their lives in the story that we are talking about. anna maria, the co-director for the centers of democracy. "deadline: white house" begins right now. hi, everyone, it's 4:00 in new york. donald trump is on his way to el paso, texas, where deep divisions away him. we will take you there momentarily. but we start with the case against donald trump delivered in a forceful speech this afternoon by democratic front-runner, former vice president joe biden. the president's attention is also on joe biden this afternoon. the president lashing out against biden on twitter during the speech from aboard air force one between visits to two grieving communities. the vice president today laying

this politically fraught moment in america squarely at donald trump's feet. >> charlottesville was no isolated incident. when trump announced he was running for president, he called mexicans rapists. daps before the midterm, he fermented fears of a caravan heading to the united states, creating hysteria when he said, look, look what's marching up. this is an invasion. an invasion. he said immigrants will, quote, carve you up with a knife. more recently he called american, a major american city a disgusting, rat-infected rodent mess. no human being, he said, would choose to live as though the vibrant, diverse community around baltimore is somehow less than human. at a rally in florida when he

asked the crowd, how do we stop these people, meaning immigrants, someone yelled back, shoot them, and he smiled. in north carolina he basked in the chants of send her back echoing the across the stadium. how far are we from trump saying this is an invasion to the shooter in el paso declaring, quote, this attack is a response to hispanic invasion of texas? how far apart are those comments? how far is it from white supremacists and neo-nazis in charlottesville to trump chanting you will replace us to the shooter at the pittsburgh tree of life synagogue to say we are committing genocide, jews are committing genocide on his

people? i don't think it's that far at all. it's both clear language and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. trump offers no moral leadership. seems to have no interest in unifying this nation. no evidence that the presidency has awakened his conscience in the least. indeed we have a president with a toxic tongue, who has publicly and unapologetically embraced the political strategy of hate, racism and division. so it's up to us as it was in the '20s, it's up to us. we're living through rare moment in this nation in history, where our president isn't up to the moment. where our president lacks the moral authority to lead, where

our president has more in common with george wallace than he does with george washington. we have to show who we are. we choose hope over fear. we choose science over fiction. we choose unity over division. and, yes, we choose truth over lies! if we stand together, we will win the battle of the soul for this nation! we are the united states of america! there's not a single thing beyond our capacity if we stand together and get up and remember who we are! this is the united states of america period! thank you, and may god protect our troops. > >> a president with more in common with george wallace than george washington is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. elise jordan, former aid to the george w. bush white house and state department is back. john heilemann, an nbc and msnbc

national affairs analyst. i'm glad he's here today. paul -- raul, i said paul twice this week, he's a columnist from "usa today" from el paso. he's making his second trip and i have gotten his name wrong twice. he was here monday. and former chief justice from the justice department is back, and from the root, one and only jason johnson. jason, let me start with you. you and i have talked the pros and cons of joe biden's candidacy. we have given points and the message has been spot on. you have not held back. today's message and today's indictment of donald trump fanning the flames of white supremacy, today's litany of the lowest of the low points of a pretty low presidency seemed to hit all the right marks. your thought? >> this is the first time joe biden distilled what he did in his campaignment announcement and actually put it on the campaign trail. it was a rousing speech.

it was a passionate speech. he took out both fists. he not just hit donald trump but he sort of tried to rouse america in a patriotic fervor about who we are as opposed to what's been happening lately. this is probably one of the better speeches joe biden gave. the difficulty he has here to be perfectly honest is i also watched cory booker's speech earlier today. >> we're going to get to that. >> equally passionate speech. >> yes. >> i think by comparison that joe biden, he still didn't give me enough of a vision of the future. he gave me a vision of what's wrong with this presidency. he told me why he should be president but not the kind of america he's going to present. that's the one main weakness of what i saw in an overall strong speech. >> we have a big chunk of cory booker's speech and we're going to get it and you will still be here. i want to ask you about i think joe biden put into words and did in public what a lot of people, including in security circles have done all week, saying it's

not a long distance between talking about an invasion of immigrants and the messages that we heard from the shooter at the tree of life synagogue. it's not a long distance to travel from constantly attacking migrants to the imagery even of immigrant children, migrant children, asylum seekers in cages, to the language of dehumanization that raul and i talked about on monday around his attacks on the city of baltimore, something i think you can speak to better than anybody. >> and that's the thing, i think what's also key, nicolle, about what biden said is he didn't just link all of these things together and he didn't just talk about the fact these are sort of national security issues, but he said very clearly how the president has hit this drumbeat over and over and over again, right? it's not just that donald trump says bad things and tweeted bad things, it's that these things are being adopted by people who then go out and act on them in violent ways. it's not just the president says terrible things about a particular city but people see

that as being a license to go out and act on what he says, and he never takes any responsibility for it. i think that was one of the stronger points of what joe biden was saying, look, this is not just about talk at this point, right? we're seeing the dangers of this. we're seeing the threats he provides. this is what we talked initially about charlottesville. one thing i have to say, and i think this is really, really critical, one of the things joe biden captures in his speech and every single candidate has to understand this, his whole theme of the soul of american. i have said this before, nicolle, you can't win this election just talking about policy. you can't win this election just talking about why donald trump is a bad guy or why the republicans are obstructionists. this is about the soul of america. who we are, who do we want to be, and who can take us there? joe biden made the argument saying i'm the one that can grab this flag and take us there, seems like a lot of americans would believe him because he did a good job presenting that, at

least in iowa. >> and people make their decisions right here in their gut. >> that's why i loved this speech. i did not have reservations about it in the sense he did not offer up political solutions because right now what people are concerned about -- long term they care about the election and issues but today people are in shock, people are grieving in two cities, people are questioning what kind of country we are and what we're going to be, and i think it is very -- it is healing for someone like the former vice president to get out there and speak from the heart and make the direct line between the rhetoric and the activities. and especially for the democratic party looking ahead when you're talking about la teen joeters who the democrats will need to turn out, we all know this hits close to home for our communities. the massacre in el paso, that for latinos was like our mother church moment. we were targeted, whether you're in el paso or noir city with

latino populations, people are very fearful. i think having someone like joe biden come out and voice those fears to the country and leave the politics out for a day or two is very helpful and i think at this moment the type of inspiration the country needs. >> i take your point about leaving politics out of it but this is laden with politics, and the kind of politics that strike fear in the heart of donald h. trump, which is probably why he's tweeting about it from aboard air force one between two stops to grieving cities. i think the reason this strikes fear in the heart of donald trump is because this was all about the size of your, whatever, hand. it takes a little bit of something to go up there on a dli day like today on this fraught news cycle and lay the blame at president trump's feet. and go to a place you described as rapists and murders, asking for network time, going into the

rose room and talking about an invasion, which disappeared until tuesday, immigrants talking about invading the country, facebook ads for dozens and dozens of mentions in paid advertising for the re-election campaign. talking about the infestation language he used in baltimore. biding lifting the moment putting the trump supporters, and bide saend for 12 seconds donald trump basked in the glee of the crowd, describing it as a gateway to a darker period in this very dark presidency and making this very, very sharp point it's not a very far distance to go from speaking of an hispanic invasion to fanning the flames of white supremacy and the words of the shooter. >> the thing that was important about this speech, the nation is reeling from these tragedies. these communities and the entire nation is. they're looking to see what it is that has gone wrong. what is the problem here?

what is the problem we need to solve? what joe biden said today, the problem is donald trump. it's not just there's a scourge of racism and white supremacy around the country that's leading to an increase in hate crimes. it's the leader of sits in the office and fans those flames and encourages those racists and uses the same language when these carrying out these attacks. i think it's the most important speech he's given so far in his campaign. and when you contrast the way the president is behaving on this trip, his tweets from air force one attacking not just joe biden but elected officials in ohio who were there, showing up and not giving a public speech but showing up behind closed doors. it's important he saw the victims and i'm glad he did it but that's not enough. he needs to be the person that brings the country together. but he can't bring the country together because he's the one that tore it apart in the first place. >> i'm still struck, it's three days old, but phil rucker's piece in "the washington post" framed this whole moment for me, at least, when he said usually

after a tragedy there's a little bit of stage craft, there's a little bit of timing. you can't drive a motorcade through a community when they're still responding. any president deals with those sort of logistical challenges. but this is much different than that. this is an open question over the weekend about whether the president's language contributed, whether his rhetoric contributed to the carnage. >> i think it's much more than questioned, i think it's a closed question. and biden and others have done the good and important work of tying the rhetoric of the president with the rhetoric of the shooter in el paso. and obviously with the whole climate we're living in. to your point, there's a whole bunch of different points around here but i will say one thing, the president goes to dayton just now and got -- nobody -- even if you hate donald trump and want to see him lose and think he's horrible for the country, which many millions of people do, many want him to perform well today. you want him to go to dayton and

el paso and help, because they are in pain. you want him to get through this day the way he rarely does, which is by behaving appropriately. it's great with the low bar we have that he got out of dayton by doing anything that caused a problem. the only way he got out of dayton without causing a problem is by not going in public. they kept him under wraps. kept him behind closed doors. public comforting is what presidents do in these moments. they do it for the nation and when they go to the communities, they lay directly and want to wrap their arms around in a public way. the people are so concerned about his inability to perform that function in dayton today is they kept him locked away out of sight. the first time he got out of their control for a moment, he got on the phone and starts attacking joe biden. so there's a horror to all of that, and i do think just to say one last thing which goes to matt's point, i think joe biden

gave a great speech today. when he's running against donald trump, he's in a happy place. he's in a less happy place if he has to fight with democrats. i will say is this donald trump the problem as joe biden believes, if we can get rid of donald trump, we will go back to a better america, or will the problem be a deeper part of the country? >> let me go where my colleague jacob so jac jacob soboroff. are you there now? >> yes, he is on his way here right now. but you declined. you're boycotting his business. remind us why and have you changed your mind now that you're here and see this big crowd? >> no, we are surrounded by so much love. i would much rather be with my fellow el pasoens in this

incredible moment of faith and love and strength. he has a responsibility, jacob, to recognize his role in all of this. what i'm going to tell that crowd is that we will be is the turning point for the country. we have to be. but in order to do that, we have to demand accountability. we can't be a prop. we can't be an accessory. we have to say, mr. president, your words harmed us. your words dehumanized us. and you have an opportunity to take this pain and take this target away. and you do that by owning what you have done, owning what you have said, saying that it is wrong and telling the world that every human being, regardless of color of skin, regardless of where you're born, whether on this side of the river or the other side of the river, every human being deserves dignity and respect. >> as you well know, congresswoman, the president has spoken in this type of dehumanizing language about latinos who make up 85% of the

constituency of this city and city of el paso for a long time. it was a long time before this incident, this white supremacist terrorist attack happened on saturday. is there a way to get beyond this while donald trump is still in the oval office? >> we have a long journey, jacob. there are still people who feel fear, young people who have told me i never realized that the color of my skin made me a target. because we're in this beautiful bubble here in el paso where we just love each other, where we take care of one another, where we're good to one another. so we have got a long journey back to making sure people are healthy body of mind, of heart and i'm committed to that journey. but the country also has a journey, a very important journey, and we've got a very important decision about accountability, and our role in accountability. >> congressman veronica escobar, good to see you. thank you very much. i appreciate it. she will be on stage next, nicolle. if i can summarize what she

said, all you have to do is look at the stage on the front of the stage in front of beto o'rouke, it says not welcome. and that's one person it's targeted at, the president of the united states. there are several hundred people here. beto o'rouke will wrap up and congresswoman escobar goes on the stage. meanwhile, back to you in new york. >> jacob, i have a question for you, it's important to point out to viewers the congresswoman's position was not black and white. the congresswoman's position was there was a day for donald trump to be welcomed, in her point of view, and that was to take back the words and take the target off the back of her community. any conversations or diplomatic work between the white house and community that you're aware of? >> i guess the -- no, is the simple answer. i guess the question is if there's any effort on behalf of the white house to do anything like that, why was the president up last night tweeting about this man, beto o'rouke, about his first name and size of his rallies in the city of el paso?

he's not interested in bridging divides. you look at the reactions, teleprompter trump had a much different message than finger-trigger trump who showed up last night and this morning on the south lawn of the white house. i had a chance to talk to beto o'rouke and he said that's why we're up here doing this today, that's why hundreds are here to send a message, the way the president depicts what happens here and things of latinas, congressmen and woman of color, it's not the reality on the ground. in this city, one of the warmest, most welcoming place i have been in all of my time covering immigration on the southern border. >> beta, we will be calling on you within the hour. i see beta over your shoulder. >> you got it. i will be back to you. >> beto o'rouke has been one of the quickest to react, this obviously his hometown. he's been sparing on on joe

biden and putting blame on trt. and i agree with john heilemann. what do you put it back to? >> he uses incendiary racist language constantly. this is a pattern joe biden went through case by case in his speech. we don't have debate is he any longer, we have to debate why are we tolerating this? what can we do to get out of this dark hole, and who are the leaders who can lead and show us out of it? that's why i salute congresswoman escobar for not giving -- lending her credibility to donald trump as he seeks political cover right now. and i commend joe biden for powerful remarks today stating the blunt and obvious truth. >> you and i have been friends a long time. we both i think watched the

trump thing coming with a bit of despair about what happened to our party. but i have never heard you speak like this before. has something shifted for you? >> i'm a daughter of the deep south. i have been obsessed with southern history, and particularly the civil rights movement that impacted my hometown, people i know and lov loved were active in the movement. i can't believe right now in 2019 america we're tolerating this kind of language and bee hafber and there are people who are excusing it, people who are leaders, who know better. and right now you work at the white house, you own this too. you're supporting an uplifting donald trump's racist regime. >> wow. no better place to sneak in a short break. don't go anywhere. after the break, local leaders in el paso speak out against donald trump's visit, as air force one prepares to touch down at any moment. and another 2020 democrat, jason

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there's a large contingent that does not want to see air force one touch down there in that community today. >> that's correct. in the interviews that i have done with people, a 62-year-old woman and 22-year-old army private and others, there's a great deal of sadness and fear but there's another feeling that comes with the shock of something like this, and that's anger and what sets this apart was that this was a political act aimed at an ethnic group that numbers 60 million people in the united states and no one i talked to at this point is not upset with the president of the united states. >> let me read a little bit from your piece. because i read it before and it moved me and i'm reading it again and it's moving again. you write beneath the desert sun arises a shine from a nation, a broiling parking lot where a monument of home made flowers and notes to the dead is crowned by a walmart seen, my people in

american history and white crosses covered with wishes in english and the names of the dead in spanish. there are 22 crosses on the street amidst the flowers and cards of two people i knew, jordan and andre. do you want to tell us about them. >> yeah, i met their family on saturday, and they were looking for one of the children that had gone missing in the walmart. i think there's is probably the most poignant story that comes out of this great tragedy. they were a young couple, only 25 and 26 years old. they had only briefly been married. and in fact they were at this walmart location right across from us on a shopping trip, according to one of their grandfathers. they were there to buy a few things to have a housewarming party. they wanted to go home to their new house and welcome friends and family, and in the process

they were gunned down trying to protect their very small children. and i think if i remember anything from this tragedy, the massacre of el paso, it will be the name of the anchondos. >> richard, i have seen you on television around the clock since your piece showed up in "the new york times" on sunday. how are you doing? >> i'm doing okay. i have feared as a reporter, a journalist, that this day would come for about three years, since the president announced his candidacy by calling mexicans rapists. i'm of mexican decent myself. i grew up in this town. i unfortunately wasn't shocked it took place but i was really shocked it happened here. this is a pretty quiet, peaceful city. it's a big city if you include el suarez, 3.2 million people. it's not perfect by any means, i know that. it has its flaws but it's not a

violent town. in a majority hispanic, binational city, this is the kind of thing that's never happened here. no one would ever think of doing this here. >> richard parker, we will call on you again and again and again. this is not a story any of us will forget for a very long time. thank you for being with us today. i will call on you again. i will go back to my colleague, jacob soboroff. >> hi, nicolle. why don't you come back in a minute. reverend william bar, a familiar face to all of us on msnbc is about to give a prayer. i will be back with you in a second. >> out of respect for that moment, we will len jacob keep his voice down. jonathan lemire, let me take you inside to donald trump's way from one grieving city, gets on his phone attacks former

officials in ohio, former vice president joe biden and now about to descend on a city where there's not a lot of agreement his presence will help their healing. >> actually, the president just touched down in the last moment or two. the president has arrived in el paso and there are divided feelings waiting there to greet him. there are a lot of protesters there cutting back and forth to the event with the prayer and public speakers. we have seen time and time again today's following a familiar pattern for the president when it comes to following a tragedy. he can hit the right notes in person, go to the hospital and say the right things but when he retreats to the safety of his cabin or air force one or white house, he turns and puts on the cable news and turns to twitter and reacts. it's remarkable, midday flying from one city to the other,

attacking on twitter, and being critical of others for playing politics with these tragedies, he's doing exactly that, which he's done time and time again. what we're expecting in el paso is also follow a familiar pattern as he visits cities like this. we saw in dayton where he went to the hospital, visited with a few victims, gave thanks to first responders but stays away from the shooting scene and protests. we anticipate the same thing in el paso. we don't anticipate him going to walmart but going to talk to some of the first responders and victims and families. and steering clear of protests, donald trump has never had an easy time seeing protesters line the streets from the motorcade. and the white house in the last couple of months has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep those images from him. i remember last year in parkland when he was there after that shooting he went nowhere near the protests and paid a quiet

visit to the hospital. most recently in london when he was there and there were huge protests in the british capital and just going two, three miles to see them, they took helicopters to avoid them and fly well above the protest. we're not expecting that today but it shows you and we're seeing with these tweets how sensitive he is to any criticism and he can't hold his tongue, he has to hit back even on a day that should be about solemn and healing. >> it's a remarkable analysis, john heilemann, to be speaking on the day and richard's pain is palpable. maria's pain, and the people from el paso, all talk about their city the same way. none of them sugarcoat it, it's not perfect but you heard congresswoman escobar talk about it as a bubble where they made it work. violence came to them from ten hours away. but on our day the focus should be on the victims jonathan la here is correct to point out it's at least worth reporting from the white house perspective

that donald trump is sensitive, prickly and angry. >> and incapable of exercising just a very basic human quality that's not about politics. john mentioned that trump had trouble in moments of crisis, right, or there's been a disaster of some kind, a natural disaster. this is not just any kind of disaster. it's a particular kind of thing here. a mass shooting, two mass shootings over one weekend in which the country is clearly wracked and in anguish over this moment. the notion just to say the words between one city and the other, donald trump attacked, attacked the mayor, attacked -- >> bizarre. >> attacked sherrod brown, attacked joe biden. interesting kinds of political analysis around the public performance of candidates and elected officeholders all the time and sometimes you're

measuring with a my krom ter how good the perp's skills are. this is not a normal skill. this is not any sane human being, you know what, on today, what will i do? i will tell what you i will not do, i will not attack anyone. it's the easiest thing in the world. these are two cities that have just been attacked. how hard is it to think to yourselfly not attack anyone for today? the president has so little impulse control, and so little basic humanity that he can't. joe biden will be around for a long time and you can attack him any time you want or sherrod brown any time you want. just for today. impossible, incapable. we cannot expect that little thing perfect this president and human being in this moment. >> it's because we cannot expect from this president one basic shred of empathy or sympathy other than for himself and perhaps his children. i think congressman escobar

touched on something very important. one of the things latinos, why aside from the carnage and loss of life, one of the reasons this is so profoundly shocking is for so many mexican-americans, el paso figures prominently in our story of origin, going all the way back to the history of the revolution, the original name of the city was the gateway to the united states, that's our family's history in this country began. and it's gone to the southwest and all over the country but think about el paso, that's where my grandpa came from, that's where my grandma started in the united states. that this would happen there, el paso is the kind of place if you're latino and grow up there, you don't feel like a minority. you don't feel like a brown kid. you're just a kid. it hits home when congresswoman escobar said it's shattering to the young people of that city because they don't grow up there with that type of discrimination or hate or animosity from the hometown. it's not there. it's from outside.

>> your description of texas as a bubble is right. there are the national politics and texas politics. texas has a long history of bipartisanship, not just in our time, it's -- we're talking about being decent in the moment of the -- i think this is the deadliest attack in the latinos in our country in the country's history. it's rising to a real occasion, not just a moment. it's so impressive, though, i think about for a movement the most challenging moments of the bush presidency, katrina had to be among them, he was in new orleans and the response justifiably criticized from the right, left, center, locally, he was in new orleans week after week after week after week making sure that that city was able to rebuild. he wasn't popular politically. a lot of people blamed him for the federal government's

response but he went and was part of rebuilding the city. i have just never seen anything like this. >> and obviously donald trump won't be back after today unless it's to come announce some crackdown. >> jason jumped in, let me go back and then back to matt. >> all of you guys are mentioning something that hit me, it's not just george bush, but beyond politics, i am not a fan of rudy giuliani, never have been. but after 9/11 he was america's mayor. rudy giuliani recognized we were all so traumatized, right, george bush recognized we were all so traumatized that this was something that affected all of us. i will tell you this, i have talked to friends in d.c. who said i'm nervous walking into walmart now, i'm nervous walking into target. i'm going to a conference in miami this week, we're talking about increased security. we are all el paso right now. we're all dayton. what a president is supposed to do, we have all seen that viral video of a car backfiring in times square and people

scattering. the entire country is experiencing ptsdp the president of the united states cannot do the most basic thing in the world, which is put his arms around this entire nation for once and say, i actually care about all of you. and that's the importance of not just these speeches that these 2020 candidates are making but local politicians. because somebody needs to say they love america even through trauma because we're never going to hear that from this president of the united states. >> look, he won't be back in el paso after stowed but in some ways donald trump's story is wrapped up in el paso. you heard richard parker say he's been worried about an event like this for three years, since donald trump started talking about rapists coming across the border. el paso right across from mexico. and i think the camps built outside of el paso housing children away from their parents. one hopeful thing congresswoman escobar said is she hopes this is a turning point.

and for all that el paso had to suffer under this administration and people who live in el paso and around the border had to suffer, maybe this will be the turning point where the country recognizes this is a president that encourages hatred and there are consequences for living under that kind of leader. >> elise, i hear and i'm sure you hear this too, this idea nothing will shake anything loose. the political moment is more static than it is dynamic. hair that and am sympathetic to that. i'm with jason, i think the president, the failure is on too big of a scale, there are too many people watching. now as opposed to the first two years of this presidency, there are 20 democrats making the case that can you do better. and i think it's the democrats, and i think i was away but i think some of what was lacking from the debate was going after each other when most of them feel any one of them would be better for the country than this. >> and i think what was lacking from that debate was not enough talk about the issues that bind

us all together and about how we can grow stronger together. >> not just democrats, but people like you and me. >> exactly. and hearing that message of hope and addressing forthright and being open the hatred that is coming from donald trump and that he is systemically akwiened by his policies at the border. this is something that should unite us all as americans. there should be no tolerance for this language whatsoever. he's not going to get a pass going forward in taking seriously but not literally, you know what, people are taking him literally. the shooter did in el paso. a shooter did at a synagogue in pittsburgh too. >> i also want to -- go ahead. >> democrats -- if democrats after this week do not -- if they haven't already done this, look back at the two nights of those debates, especially the second one, and people have pointed out how idiotic it was

to be attacking barack obama. they spent a lot of time in the debate attacking the obama legacy. i sort of understand why some of it happened. it's after this week if democrats don't understand the folly, the id asy, going on with that, barack obama had flaws but this week makes epically clear how insane it is for democrats to be focusing on anything besides donald trump, let alone focusing on barack obama, again, he some failures but just think about how he performed in these moments when he was president. >> my colleague jacob soboroff is joined by beto o'rouke. no one made a stronger, more blunt case about donald trump than your guest, jacob. >> and nicolle wallace, nobody has made a stronger or blunt case about donald trump than you have. congressman, right now the president is on the tarmac greeting the members of the

texas delegation. he's on el paso's soil. what goes through your head hearing that? >> i think this is the answer to that. you have all of these beautiful people from el paso and also from suarez,er mexico city, who are coming together in the wake of this horrific lost of life. this terrorism that was in part inspired by president trump in his warnings of invasions and infestations, his demonization of this community, immigrants as rapists and criminals. there's a very real consequence. it doesn't just offends us. it hurts us and kills us. this community is coming together, focusing on one another, wishing the president would not come but focused on el paso. >> as you said the reality, fact of the matter is he is here and right now shaking hands with political allies. we talked about earlier today how you and congresswoman escobar chose not to participate in that at all. you have seen a lot of big

rallies. looking out at this crowd today when you looked out at this one, how is it different for you? >> it's just beautiful. here we are under a beautiful sky, boiling sun, probably 101. folks have been out here for hours listen be to congresswoman escobar, now listening to reverend barber, listening to one another and dreamers and celebrating the best of who we are. this is one of the safest cities in america, not despite but because it's a city of immigrants. though we bore the brunt of this attack and hatred and racism, we also hold the answer for this country that is so divided right now. there's a way to come together not despite our differences but embracing our differences. that's what made el paso so special. >> you have been very clear you believe the president is in large part to blame what happened over the weekend here in el paso. how worried are you with donald trump still in the oval office, something like this will inevitably happen again? >> it will happen again because what happened in el paso is not an isolated incident. after the president warned of caravans, you had somebody go

into the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, warning of caravans. you had the mosque in victoria, texas, burned to the ground on the day trump signed his executive order seeking to ban muslim travel to the united states. there are very real consequences to his words, to his tweets, to this. you saw him in may say how are we going to stop these people? and someone yells out shoot them. the crowd roars with approval and he laughs. says that's okay with me. he's not the source of racism in this country, that has been long before this country, but he's fanning flames and making violence like this more possible and real until we change course. >> you've been very clear you believe the president is a racist. is the president a white supremacist? >> he is. he has made that very clear.

he dehumanized those who do not look and pray like the majority of people here. he said i wish we had more immigrants from nordic countries because those from haiti bring aids, those from africa are shithole nations. he's been clear who he wants to keep out with walls and cages as militarization and torture and cruelty. again, we in el paso have born the brunt of all of that but we in el paso are standing up to all of that and i have never been more proud of this community than i have in this moment. >> congressman beto o'rouke, thank you very much. he's right, it's 100 degrees out here but it's extraordinary to see the strength of this crowd out here, even though maybe all of these folks don't want to see the president of the united states here today. >> jacob, stay with us. i want to underscore two things. i think this presidential race will never be the same. now one of the top candidates described donald j. trump, the president, as a white

supremacist, changing the contour of this race from this point forward. >> i think it's an extraordinary thing to say but beto o'rouke consistently has pointed to the underlying documentation, receipts, if you will, about the way the president talks about people of color in this country, and it's long preceded what happened here this weekend. i mean, acknowledging we talked about it but the minute he came down the escalator, rapists and criminals, go back where you came from and infestation and invasions and separation of children along the border started right here in el paso. the pilot program in 2017 happened not far from where we are in the el paso border patrol sector. if you look at everything in isolation, you know, maybe there's a case to be made but beto o'rouke said we have to synthesize and look at it as a whole and his conclusion is donald trump, the president of the united states, is a white supremacist. >> jacob, i don't know if you have somewhere to go but if you can hang out for a few more minutes.

i want to come back to the interview but get quick reaction from jason johnson. i believe the democratic primary will be the day before that o'rourke called donald trump a white supremacist and the day after. i think the democratic primary changed. the face of it, the feel of it. we came on the air the biden speech seemingly changing the democratic primary, a litany of donald trump's racist rhetoric laid out and tied to the violence in el paso. you have beto o'rouke, the son of el paso, who has been blunt in calling donald trump a racist, tying the rhetoric to the violence now saying, yes, he is indeed a white supremacist. >> that is an amazing moment. i completely agree with you, nicolle, and also not only does this give us the beto moment, talking pure politics, beto moment, but also sets a new baseline for how the opponents have to talk about this president. the extension of this, we've seen this with joaquin castro and certain things joe scarborough said, since we identified this president as being a white supremacist and

racist, that means you support him. you bear some responsibility, which changes the complete dynamic of the 2020 race with many of the candidates saying we need to reach out. oh, do you now? because if you are, you're saying you're trying to reach out to people who support white nationalist, racism and domestic terrorism. i think this is a dividing line in the 2020 race. i think it's a welcome line. i'm glad democrats will maybe walk across it and make a clear statement. this is not just about good feelings and elections now, it's the soul of the nation as joe biden said, a racist president and us coming together and recognizing what is really at stake. >> raul, he's right. joe scarborough is one of the faces most out front asking questions about donald trump's donors and what they're donating to. >> right. as a result of today everyone running these democratic hopeful campaigns, they're figuring out their answers to that question right now because that's going to be a question that goes down the line at those debates. another question that's a

by-product of that, and this is in terms of the whole party, is this party going to continue to try to reach a slice of the rural, midwestern voters who turned out very strongly for trump and are still sticking by him? if the democratic candidates believe that they're supporting a white supremacist or are they going to try to go a more progressive route and bring in new voters, women of color, latino voters, more african-americans? i think it's also going to potentially change the way the party approaches voter outreach. just that, it's amazing how a small statement like that is going to have major implications in the next debate and the next course of this race. >> and i guess part of me is surprised it took so long for someone to say it. donald trump did an interview i believe with fox business describing himself as a proud nationalist. it's two more ticks on the dial to being a white supremacist. >> that was the beto o'rouke a lot of people fell in love with in the 2018 senate campaign. someone willing to say things he

knew were true, he believed in his heart, and didn't worry about the political blowback. you have seen him since this tragedy, he a graeat moment asking reporters what the -- sa air. >> and that is the point. democrats need to frame this election in moral terms, need to make clear that it's not just questions of health care and it's not just questions of gun control and it's not just, you know, questions of immigration. those are all really important. but this says something about who we are as a country. voting for a white supremacist is not a moral choice. supporting a white supremacist is not a moral choice. >> this is what i wanted to come to you on politics. making crossing the border, decriminalizing that, polarizing. those are bad choices, bad debates. there is a chance here to reframe the whole conversation around immigration policy, around the kinds of stories that jacob covers in these moral terms. >> well, i think they have to do

that for sure. and, look, i think, you know, there's this big american argument that we're having, and i think that whoever the democratic nominee ends up being is going to be someone who's able to do that. the ability to have a conversation that addresses both -- that presents themselves as the

so we must acknowledge as a country that as much as white supremacy manifests itself in dangerous and deadly acts of terror, it is perpetrated by what is too often a willful ignorance or dangerous tolerance of its presence in our society. >> powerful words from presidential candidate cory booker. and then came this from beto o'rourke just a few moments ago. >> you've been very clear that you believe the president is a racist. is the president a white

supremacist? >> he is. he's also made that very clear. he's dehumanized or sought to dehumanize those who do not look like or pray like the majority here in this country. he said i wish we had more immigrants from nordic countries because those from haiti bring aides, those from africa bring [ bleep ] nations. he's clear who he literally wants to keep out with walls and cages and mill tarization and cruelty. we in el paso have borne the brunt in all of that. but we are standing up to that right now, and i've never been more proud of this community than i am at this moment. >> elise. >> i want to focus in on what senator booker said about willful ignorance. i hate that it had to come at such a price. but we can't be willfully ignorant any longer about the impact of systemic racism within our country and how donald trump

is torquing up the racism that is there to begin with. i'm not saying donald trump created it. but he's giving it a turbo charge. and i remember during the summer of 2016 -- or was it 2015 when the horrible massacre happened at that church, and it was the republican primary. and the big question for candidates was how are you going to decry the confederate flag, are you really going to go there and everyone tip-towing around. it's time now that moment to top. it should've stopped long ago. >> jason. >> you want to talk about moral authority? >> cory booker is the only politician that they will even allow to speak at mother emmanuel. it's also where people actually die. that is what the country needs to say, whether or not he becomes the nominee, was powerful when he said, look, i'm not just here as a politician, i'm here to talk about the better nation we can be and what better place to talk about that then a place that demonstrates not just the dangers of white nationalism terrorism, but,

that, yes, did precede donald trump and we have to make sure these things don't happen again. >> it's great that we've seen joe biden and cory booker. it shouldn't just have to be democrats who call it who it obviously is. it's fairly amazing that they're not the only ones who can tell that we have a racist in the white house and that the president's remarks sow the seeds of violence. and so as you see all these democrats who are running for president, it's members of the congress and members of the senate make statements like this. you have to ask yourself as we have all throughout this presidency, where is the republicans? you saw ted cruz and john cornyn standing on the tarmac greeting president trump as he came to el paso. mike constituents died because of this attack. mr. president, you need to stop talking the way you do about the people of this country. >> do you think he's ever going to say anything? >> it's truly amazing we can

name, you know, someone mentioned rob portman's name. it's amazing that -- i'm not amazed at this point that there's not an outcry, a wave of republicans standing up because they're so obviously hollowed out and corrupt and debased at this point that i don't expect anything like that, but it's not that there's even one or two. >> monday night before the special here, we called 30 to see if anyone wanted to be part of the conversation. >> but there's no big national republican, a mitt romney, a rob portman, one of these republican senators who we thought was a mainstream conservative republican senator who would stand up in this moment and say enough. and go even further because i know some of them understand the depths of the president's racism and white supremacy. i know they understand it, and it's just astonishing, one of those astonishing things in this era and one of the things that most historians will write about these people. >> you had beto o'rourke say

this will happen again and again and began. >> i've given up any predictions about the future, certainly optimistic ones when it comes to republicans. >> you know, no doubt this is an affliction point, not just for t t. the candidate who emerges is going to be the candidate who can show us the brightness, the light out of these extreme times. >> i want to thank all my guests. jacob soboroff and all of those guests there in el paso. that does it for this hour. thanks to watch. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" with my friend chuck todd starts now. ♪ ♪ welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press daily." the president has just arriv