Meanwhile, President Trump came under fire for refusing to acknowledge the global rise of white nationalism in the wake of the attack.
Reporter: “Do you see, today, white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?”
President Donald Trump: “I don’t, really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess. If you look at what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s the case. I don’t know enough about it yet. They’re just learning about the person and the people involved. But it’s certainly a terrible thing, terrible thing.”
Trump tweeted more over the weekend about the late Senator John McCain and advocating for Fox News to bring back host Jeanine Pirro—who appeared to be suspended after attacking Congressmember Ilhan Omar on air for wearing a hijab last week—than he did about the New Zealand massacre. He did not tweet once—in more than 20 tweets—about the massacre.
Security experts and government agencies have warned that white nationalist attacks are on the rise and pose a major domestic threat. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said, in 2017, white supremacist groups carried out more attacks in the U.S. than any other domestic extremist group since 2001.