political analyst. steve, first to you. you know congress so well. is this fear, 55% now really worried about white nationalist mass shootings. is this fear going to do anything to impell congress to act beyond perhaps red flag laws? i hope it does. i wish members of congress would pay attention to the very alarming statistics. andrea, the fbi director testified to congress a few weeks ago and said in the third quarter of this fiscal year, the fbi made 100 international terrorist-related arrests and an equivalent number of domestic terrorism arrests, the vast majority related to white supremacy. the southern poverty law center has told congress there s been a 30% increase in hate groups since the inauguration of donald trump and the adl, an die defamation league has told congress there s been a significant increase in anti-semitic crimes, 2,000
higher, of americans would like to see some forward action. and doesn t mitch mcconnell have to respond to that at some point? you would think. the nra is a lot weaker than it s ever been. you would think. but the pressure, downward pressure on these candidates who are running for re-election or running for election for the first time is enormous. and the question that, you know, a lot of americans are asking is, so you value your re-election more than the safety of my child in their classroom, than the safety of my family when we go to the theater or we go shopping? and i think that s a legitimate question to ask. it doesn t mean that you need to have draconian gun laws in place. a lot of states have strict gun laws, my state of maryland, very strict gun laws. the fact of the matter is that there are still big, gaping holes that need to be filled where congress has to act. and i think it s going to take people, actually, putting the
kind of pressure that s greater than what the nra and the president is doing on these members to get them to move. and that maybe means unelecting a few of them. may i add something? yeah. i would like to agree with mike and add something. i served in congress 16 years. michael knows as well. i can t tell you how many republican members of congress i would speak to that would say personally they support strengthening background checks or banning cop-killer bullets but they feared the far right backed by gun supporters. when he they fear what happens in schools more than they fear what happens in a primary, maybe we ll see some action. something that s ricochetting around the political atmosphere here, when you hear from congresswomen omar and tlaib today. they ll respond first time together to all the rhetoric and what we re seeing with the president s tweets, trying to
anti-semitic assaults in 2018, the third highest on record. now, it would be unfair to say that donald trump creates this hate, but he certainly gives it license. and he licenses it when he says things like there are fine people on both sides of a neo nazi protest. and, michael steele, are there any concerns in the republican party that this president and others are helping to at least validate these horrible, horrible, violent white supremacists? there is concern about it. but these individuals are caught between the president and the nra. so, you know, how do they guard and express that concern? to stove s point, the congress is going to do what? you may get some action in the house after labor day, but then what happens in the senate? the general mood, as the poll reflects, 55%, and i would suspect that number is probably