America. At this time, we do have one person in custody. Authorities say it was an ak47. One of the most deadliest days in texas. Two Mass Shootings in less than 48 hours. This was a domestic terrorist attack that was fueled by White Supremacy. They take our peace from us. Is america at a Tipping Point . Thank you for being here with us tonight. Im Rachel Maddow along with my colleagues, Brian Williams and nicole wallace. Tonight, we are going to look at the surge in Mass Shootings in our country and in particular, at the White Nationalist terrorist threat that seems to have driven the el paso massacre of latinos this weekend, possibly the gilroy shooting a week ago, and the phenomenon which the fbi says is now the predominant domestic terrorist threat in the nation. Over the course of these next two hours, well be hearing tonight from Jose Diaz Balart in el paso, texas. Kate snow, dayton, ohio. Jacob soboroff is in gilroy, california. Ca cal perry is in tapachula, mexico. And our justice correspondent, pete williams, is in our washington, d. C. , newsroom. And well hear from congressman Veronica Escobar in el paso, as well. And from democratic senator chris murphy, a leading voice on gun reform in this country. Joining us now from el paso is telemundo anchor and host of nbc nightly news saturday Jose Diaz Balart. Jose, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I spoke to georgina perez, a member of the texas board of education from el paso earlier today in the 4 00 p. M. Hour. I asked her what she needed from the country right now and she said what she needed from the country was for people to stop talking about immigrants as criminals. What are you hearing in that community tonight . Reporter i think you know what, were sick and tired of being labeled anything but patriotic americans. People who are here to make this country better. Were here so that this country can progress. So that our children have a better life. Thats what we want to hear. And the people that are here today, the people that are here today represent the best of this country. El paso is a city 85 latino that opens its arms and it opens its hearts to everyone. It has done so forever. We have been here since just sunday and the people that i have met, the people that are here in this iconic restaurant in el paso really have a deep, deep hurt in their heart. Were going to be talking to some of them tonight. Jose, theres also an undeniable i hear the emotion and the anger, but theres an undeniable resilience in that community. Just give us some anecdotal evidence. I saw it in the interviews i did today, but youve been there longer than me. Youre there right now. Tell us about that. Reporter well, one after the other after the other. El paso strong. We see it reflected in so many ways. And were going to be meeting some of the people tonight that have really taken this to heart and are suffering, but say, this is not going to define us. You know, yesterday i was at a blood bank and a lady said it was 3 00 in the afternoon, she got there at 8 00 and was giving blood after so many hours waiting. She said, im giving blood because so many much of my countrymens blood was spilled. And i want this color, the only color of blood of all humans, to be what people think about. Progress and love, not hate and death. Jose diaz balart, telemundo anchor, host of nbc nightly news saturday. Were going to be talking to you throughout the evening. Thank you very much for starting us off. Over the past few years, as the number of Mass Shootings in america has risen and risen and risen still further, the response to Mass Shootings has gotten stuck between the gears somehow. Our Public Officials roar and gnash their teeth, but nothing ever catches. Policy doesnt change. One of the questions being asked now after this particular spate of Mass Shootings is whether that stasis will still hold, even now, even as this crisis takes on a frightening new form. [ gunfire ] reporter it happened again this weekend. [ screaming ] reporter and then again. Where else in the western world do these shootings happen with such numbing regularity . The answer is nowhere. This is also a Mental Illness problem. These are really people that are very, very seriously mentally ill. Reporter the Mental Illness argument is a convenient retreat, but its not like other countries are free from Mental Illness or violent video games or disaffected youth or any of the other proxies we blame after every new mass shooting. Its only in america where the combination of a young man and a loaded gun have led to so many tragedies, so many dead. Just another day in the United States of america. Reporter when theres an attack by an islamic extremist, we have no problem calling that terrorism. The american war on terror has identified a very specific enemy. In this case, the shooter in el paso was on a different kind of terrorist mission. This was homegrown domestic terrorism. The targeted murder of immigrants and latinos, to try to spread the ideology and the aims of White Nationalism. This is disgusting, intolerable. It is not texan. Reporter White Nationalism is an american terrorist movement as old as the klan, as old as slavery, as old as the nation. But now unfettered online and with an increasing reach into farright politics, its modern spread is a current and violent american crisis. The majority of the domestic terrorism cases that weve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence. Reporter on the day of the attack in el paso, the gunman posted a 2,000word diatribe online, railing about his fears for the white race and his hatred of immigrants, his desire to target hispanics. He said he drew inspiration from an attack against muslims in new zealand that killed 51 people. And from racist antiimmigrant arguments that White Nationalists have been circulating online for years. Just 20 minutes after posting that online screed, that gunman killed 22 people in a walmart in el paso. No reporter it was the worst terrorist attacks specifically targeting the Latino Community in modern american history. The survivors families in el paso and the survivors families in dayton, which was attacked just 14 hours later, have struggled to follow the same tragic script that so many other families have. By remembering the victims, by trying to make sense. She was just a wonderful person. Shes give anything for those kids. Anything. Even her life. Reporter and the two communities rallied. Citizens came out in droves to help. Lines formed around the corner at blood banks. The first thing that goes through your head is, get out of your house, go out there, help someone, help your neighbor out. We are a strong, strong community. And theyll never break us. Reporter but this time, something felt different. Something felt new. We are strong. And this are upripple effect is to be long lasting and its going to impact generations here. A recognition that something has been forever changed and our new normal is neither normal nor welcome. Its affecting our entire way of life. To the point where if people arent in that sort of security apparatus, if theyre not constantly being surveilled and secured, they may feel vulnerable to this sort of violence. So what kind of a world have we really created in the end whenever terrorism has affected us in such a way. Reporter the federal government is pursuing the shooting in el paso as a possible hate crime, but the u. S. Attorney for west texas, john bash, went beyond that. As a statutory definition of domestic terrorism, this meets it. It appears to be designed to intimidate a single population, to say the least. Reporter now on top of that epidemic, american gun massacres carried out by domestic terrorists, organizing online, spreading White Nationalism through social media, through extremist media, up through the ragged edges of american politics, this is a challenge of a different order. Today, if you look at whats going on in the United States, you have an ideology, they are motivated, they have capability. They know what to do and they have access to weapons. And they are willing to commit violence against other americans to advance their cause. I think thats the significant change weve seen over the last ten years. Brian and nicole, that warning there from former fbi agent clint watts there at the end about the rise of american ideology violence, saying they are motivated, they have the capability. Obviously, we have all covered Mass Shootings, we have all covered this incredible phenomenon that we have in our lifetimes as americans of these Mass Shootings. There does seem to be something that may even be politically different when it comes to Mass Shootings that are inflected by a domestic Terrorism Movement. Yeah. Look, i mean, you talked about the manifesto. You talked about the language of the manifesto. Ill just say it, the elephant in the room is the intersection of the killers manifesto, language of an invasion from mexicans, and the person who happens to be the american president right now. Cut and paste dialogue. Right. If i was an algorithm, metadata was one of the tools we had. I worked in the white house on 9 11, and all of the policies we put in place were controversial, we dont need to debate them tonight. But one of the tools was metadata, it looked for information between phone numbers, conversations, speech. If i were an algorithm and looking for intersections between the language on the manifesto from the killer in el paso and Donald Trumps twitter feed or Donald Trumps maga rallies, i would be going, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Theyre undeniable and they have to be part of the conversation. And to hear your voice say, this time feels different, which is a line we have all uttered before, but for the fact that this time it feels different politically. And given this backdrop and given the dialogue of all of this. Which naturally leads us to this. After radio silence spent at his new jersey golf resort, including dropping in on a wedding reception over the weekend, we then heard from the president. First via twitter, where he largely blamed the news media and suggested that what we really need is immigration reform. And then prepared remarks on teleprompter this morning from the white house. In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and White Supremacy. We must recognize that the internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demonstrated acts. We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. May god bless the memory of those who perished in toledo. Obviously, the second shooting of the weekend was in dayton, ohio, and not toledo. That appearance today launched a whole new conversation about teleprompter trump versus rally trump. The president s remarks included but one mention of White Supremacy, mostly spreading the blame among the internet, video games, and Mental Illness. No mention, for example, of universal background checks for gun purchases. A few hours later, we heard from a former president , however, barack obama wrote and posted this. No other nation on earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of Mass Shootings that we see in the United States. No other developed nation tolerates the levels of gun violence that we do. We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments. Leaders who demonize those who dont look like us or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life or refer to other people as subhuman or imply that american belongs to just one certain type of people. It has no place in our politics or our public life and its time for the overwhelming majority of americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much, clearly and unequivocally. Barack and Michelle Obamas statement with no subtle references there to the current occupant, the current vocabulary of invasion, nativism ill get that right, aand divisiveness. One of the most shared pieces of writing during this day came from the New York Times. The Editorial Board did not mince word. Quote, we have a White Nationalist terrorist problem. If either gunman had adhered to the ideology of radical islam, the resources of the American Government and its International Allies would mobilize without delay. No american would settle for thoughts and prayers as a counterterrorism strategy. In recalling the words of president george w. Bush in the wake of 9 11, we must be a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Nicole, youve already mentioned this. Your former boss has been invoked. Of all of us, you were the only one who was Communications Director on 9 11. Listen. To see that page, that New York Times editorial page invoke and that page was really tough on the george w. Bush administration, particularly some of the programs that ive already mentioned, metadata, specifically. But the point is well taken. The point is actually more powerful by invoking george w. Bush and the approach. Because the attack of 9 11 was viewed as an attack on our nation. Now, this would be the Second Attack on the nation since donald trump has been on the scene. The first was the russian attack on our democracy. And we all know how he reacted to that. He appeared to row against american intelligence agencies. He appeared to row against american Law Enforcement, to the degree that then acting director of the fbi, andy mccabe, opened a full field investigation to find out if donald trump was a witting or unwitting agent of russia. You now have the second highprofile threat, attack, if you will, on our country. This time its White Supremacyinspired domestic terror. You have Donald Trumps handpicked fbi director chris wray testifying to that, really i think the day before robert mueller. And its another test for this president. Will he row with christopher wray, or will his language, which mirrors almost exactly the language of this moment of White Supremacy make the job of the fbi more difficult . And to that point, i think youve made this point very eloquently, both on your show today and already since weve been on the air tonight, this idea that the president has been speaking the same language, at least of the el paso shooter, if we take the el paso shooters written word at his intention. Now, that is horrific in terms of us the diagnosing whats going on in this country right now and what we have for national leadership, ill just say that bluntly. Does it also offer an opportunity to curtail this, to cut it off . To not only stop inspiring and it stoking it, but to reach that Extremist Movement in this country, from a point where no other president ever could. Presumably, this president is in a position to speak to White Nationalist terrorist groups, in a way that could reach them. In a way that no other president or politician ever could. Its horrifying to think that that could be strategic or necessary, but it could actually make a difference. I only know what ive learned from covering him, and this was a time during the campaign when jake tapper had to go at candidate trump seven times to condemn david duke. They went back and forth. It was rhetorical torture. Do you condemn . Yes, i condemn. He went back at him, gave him five, six yes, i condemn. I remember calling a source who worked on the campaign and said, listen, its Donald Trumps way of winking and nodding and saying, i welcome your support. And jim comey writes about that eloquently on the same New York Times editorial page. That we havent conquered racism well enough or long enough for any of our leaders to wink and nod at any element of the White Nationalist movement. All they need and clint, i know well bring you in a minute, but the fight against domestic terror is to frail, so fragile, so nascent that to have the most powerful, most prominent politician in the country winking and nodding is treacherous. Also talking about whether or not he is going to be pulling in the same direction as the fbi and intelligence agencies, part of what we need to talk about over the course of this show tonight and we will is the question of whether the Trump Administration has actually meaningfully weakened efforts to counter violent extremism. They have dissolved, for example, the office thats supposed to be working on that and defunded the organizations that are working to deradicalize specifically white supremacist organizations. The fact is, if we are looking about stuff to do, b