that's just here in el paso. you are right to say we must come together. you and our leaders in congress must start. take us to a better place. pass the laws to protect us from the white nationalists. do what the people call for. make us safer from guns in the wrong hands. come back, do your job. keep our hearts from breaking. please. thank you for watching our coverage. it continues now with don lemon and "cnn tonight." >> good message. very heart felt message and right on the mark. i have to say it is incumbent upon lawmakers. you always tell lawmakers calling them out and saying to do their damn job. those are your words. you're exactly right. we have called on this president to say the words that he finally said today. but they ring hollow when he coddles white supremacists or domestic terrorism or those who perform the acts. i hope this makes a difference, how many times have we have been sitting here on tv saying i hope this one changes things. and nothing happens. >> i hear you. i have hope. couple reasons. el paso is a special place. i have been here many times. i know it's a really hot issue. whether or not the president comes. people are angry they believe the president doesn't believe in them. i get it. >> he says he's coming. >> if he does come, and he sees the people and sees how they're like this. this is how they are. and peach of the fingers is hispanic, white, christian, catholic. whatever. they have all come together. if he sees that and sees the richness of the diversity. low crime, high commerce and incredible community. maybe it will remind him that us vs. them ain't worth it. it's all about we. this hater picked the wrong city. to make an example of. it makes the right points about what makes america great. >> a beautiful city of immigrants. people from all over. people who are from who come from their families come from below the southern border. and they're not invaders. not a brown menace. they're loving people. who live in a community they love and take care of. and they cherish. just like anybody else. like white people. let's be honest. just like the people who support him. just like any trump supporter. white, black or whatever. those people are the same. they love their country and family. they had their struggles and go to church on sunday. they go buy school supplies and sadly this time they were caught in the middle of a deadly melee. by a terrible person misguided person. who sadly had access to a very powerful weapon. that he shouldn't have access to. >> listen. the gun piece is comp collated because of how politicized it's become. it needs to be negotiated and buy in from both sides. i was so happy to have a republican congress member come on tonight. with some common sense. >> this piece -- that's okay. this piece is easy. treating these white nationalists as the terrorists they are when they act in violence. political agenda. that's easy. who's fighting the other side of it? bring up the left too. there's no right and left. they're haters. treat them all as terrorists when they act this way. >> remember the conversation we had about this very subject before christopher wray came out and we got a lot of flak for it. now this is one of the things you don't want to say i told you so. there it is. right in front of your face. you did a great job. continue to do that and i'll see you tomorrow. take care. >> okay. >> this is "cnn tonight" i'm don lemon. we're a nation and we're horrified by senseless violence right now. that has killed 31 people in el paso texas and dayton, ohio. think about that. 31 people. gun violence happening over and over again. the president did address it today. but so did former president obama. whom we rarely hear from. their responses a study in contrast. it's worth looking at it together. >> here's part of what president trump who repeatedly said racist things painted immigrants as criminals and talk about invasions of the southern border. here's what he said about the back to back massacres. >> our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. these sinister ideology must be defeated. hate has no place in america. hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul. >> this president has trafficked in racism. espoused bigotry. and resisted condemning white supremacy. until the shootings he was using racism as an electoral strategy. we have the measure of this man. we know the measure of this man. did he own that? of course not. the president blames the shootings on violence in our society. referring to gruesome video games. and on people suffering mental health problems. we know the suspected killer in el paso was targeting hispanics. aiming to stop what he refers to as the hispanic invasion of texas. more of the president from today. >> we can and will stop this evil could not teenage contagion. >> one thing the president is failing to acknowledge. his own racist rhetoric against undocumented immigrants. >> this is an invasion. when you see the caravans starting out with 20,000 people. that's an invasion. i was badly criticized for using the word invasion. it's an invasion. and it's also an invasion of the drugs. coming in from mexico. okay? invasion of drugs. these are rough, rough, people. in many cases. and if they're allowed to breakthrough our borders, only larger and bigger, we have emboldened these people. it's not going to happen. yes, sir we have barb wire going up. >> sounds like ugly and divisive to me. tagging all immigrants at the border as criminal. in the wake of the mass murder the president saying this today. >> cultural change is hard. but each of us can choose to build a culture that celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every human life. that's what we have to do. >> who wrote that? have you ever met this president? whoever wrote that. have you met president trump? the president trump who recently attacked four congresswomen of color. claiming they came from other countries? falsely it turns out in the case of three of the women. who are american born. minnesota congresswoman omar was born in somalia but a naturalized citizen. still he tweeted this. go back and help fix the broken and crime infested places from which they came. infested. where have we heard him use that word? oh, right. in his attack on congressman cummings. african american who represents baltimore: the president tweeting cummings district is a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess. spend more time there and help clean up this very dangerous and filthy place. notice the pattern here? the president repeatedly uses words such as infested, rats, rodents, broken, crime, filthy, against brown and black people. including brown undocumented immigrants trying to come to america to escape violence and seek a better life. in his le marks today the president failed to acknowledge the elephant in the room. the availability of deadly weapons of war in this country. look at your screen. take a look. it's the weapon used by the gunman in dayton to kill nine people and injure many more. but the president did say this. >> we must seek real bipartisan solutions. we have to do that. in a bipartisan manner. that will truly make america safer and better for all. >> here are the facts it turns out the house passed what's called a bipartisan background check act of 2019. back in february. designed to tighten background checks on those who buy guns. mitch mcconnell the leader of the republican controlled senate, won't bring it to the floor for a vote. did you hear that? they passed it. mitch mcconnell won't bring it to the floor for a vote. you elected him. you have a voice. do something. and president trump vowed to veto it anyway. so we know from his words and from his deeds the value of his statement today. another president gave a statement later in the day. notice the difference in tone. from former president obama. michelle and i agree with the families in el paso and dayton who endure the latest mass shootings. even if details are emerging. there are a few things we know to be true. first, 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 a level of gun violence that we do. every time this happens, we're told that tougher gun laws won't stop all murders. they won't stop every individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places. the evidence shows they can stop some killings and save people from heartbreak. we're not helpless. until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws. these tragedies will keep happening. he's right. we are not helpless. believe me i know it seems that way. right now. more from president obama statement. second, while the motivation behind these shootings may not yet be fully known, there are indications that the el paso shooting follows a dangerous trend. troubled individual who embrace racist ideology and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy. like the followers of isis and other foreign terrorists organizations these individuals may act alone. but they have been radicalized by white nationalist web sites that proliferate on the internet. that means that both law enforcement agencies and internet platforms need to come up with strategies to reduce the influence of the hate groups. on that, he and trump agree. the president saying today he is asked the fbi to investigate and disrupt hate groups and domestic terrorism. then, former president obama points his finger right until the direction of president trump. here's the final part of the statement. just as important, all of us have to send a call and behave with values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of democracy. soundly reject language out of the mouths of any of the leaders that these feeds a climate of fear or hatred and normalizes racist sentiment. who demonize those who don't look like us and suggest people threaten our way of life. or refer to people as subhuman or imply america belongs to just one certain type of people. such language is isn't new. it has been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history. in america and around the world. it is at the root of slavery and gym crow. the holocaust. genocide. and ethnic clensing. no place in our politics. and public life. it's time for the overwhelming majority of americans of goodwill of every race and faith and political party to say as much. clearly and unequivocally. no doubt millions of americans have been waiting for president obama to call out the divisive and racist dangerous rhetoric. he didn't call him by name. but could anyone have any doubt who he means? who he's talking about? when he was in the white house, president obama was also forced to deal with mass shootings. the murders of children at the school in sandy hook. >> every time i think about those kids, it gets me mad. and by the way, it happens on the streets of chicago every day. so, all of us need to demand congress brave enough to stand up to the gun lobbies' lies. >> then as today, he called on congress to pass sensible gun legislation. it didn't. it did not. president trump denouncing racism and bigotry. but ignoring any mention of his own rhetoric. my panel will discuss next. 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(vo) the network more people rely on gives you more. president trump pointing the finger every way but inward. he declared hate had no place this america. death toll climbed to 31 in this weekends mass shootings in el paso and dayton. president blaming violent video games, mental illness and the internet. and a culture promoting violence. i want to bring in my panel. good evening, one and all. the president reading off a teleprompter. condemned racism and white supremacy. at rallies in his tweets, he says things that fuel those believes. and people who support them. we have seen this pattern before. >> right. it's the arsonist saying they want to help put out the fire. he's the one who created the fire in the first place. the fact that el paso is the place that he went to and demagogued and lied about this city. i think at a minimum makes him feel some sort of culpability. if you look at the various ways he has used racial demagogue to dehumanize anybody really that isn't white. frankly. there's no question that he is not in a position to be claiming to be condemning white supremacy. the mental health thing the only time republicans bring up the issue is use it to defend a shooting. they don't ever bring it up in any other context and don't want to do anything to help people. they want to repeal health insurance for people who have mental health problems and whatever the role mental health may play in the the shootings, the fundamental driver in a lot of shootings we have seen is ideology. white supremacy and a gun. >> i'm glad you mention that. i want everyone to know to get this clear when we talk about this. there was a recent study show that about 4% of murders are done by the mentally ill. more apt to harm themselves than someone else. and so i just feel it is inappropriate to make them the scapegoat. there are lots of factors that go into this. let's study them all. to make the mentally ill a scapegoat for the shootings is inappropriate. at this point. we didn't hear anything today about the president's own rhetoric. pursuing a 2020 strategy based on division. >> he did this in 2018 and he's doing it now. his advisers will run to the press and tell anyone who will listen this strategy of racial division is a brilliant strategy. as long as he relies on that, he can't meaningfully condemn white nationalism. as long as the reelection strategy centers around scaring white people about the presence of people who have different ethnic background or are of different faith ins the country, he cannot meaningfully repudiate hate in the fashion he at the >> attempted to do this morning. >> you will lead our country to destruction. let's talk about the intersection you see between the availability of assault weapons in the country and the president's rhetoric. >> that's the nexus. where the slaughter is happening in the american streets. we have way too many guns in the country. something like 400 million guns for 330 million people. we have something like 10 million assault weapons in the country. the favored gun of the shooters. and you have mass shootings in america for decade. they have been growing, at the same time in the last few years you have an increase in white supremacist ideology. fuelled from the oval office. incitement and hate mongering from the oval office. and no desire to regulate guns from the oval office. donald trump is responsible for spewing hate and spewing inciteful racist rhetoric and responsible for being utterly subserve i can't to the nra. refusing to do anything to establish the most common sense gun regulations like background checks supported by 90% of the voters. to contribute to the slaughters in the streets he cannot say i condemn racism and white supremacy and violence. he hasn't done anything to stop the problems. he's making them worse. >> we talk about the mental illness piece. i wonder if the president and allies are conflating hate and mental illness. think about this. in other countries, they have mental illness. rates that are not too different than here in the united states. they don't have access to guns. we know what happened in new zealand. how do we fix this and choose not to? >> the why do we choose not to is an important question. there's a real sickness in the country. that something is profoundly deeply wrong that people believe that they have a right to own weapons of war and people act like, a lot of the leaders. act like this just happens everywhere. and there's nothing we can ever do about it. the rest of the world doesn't live like this. so we don't actually cathedral to live this way and why people believe they have a right to own these guns it really needs to be addressed. when you talk to people -- i have had conversations with people that say they should be able to have it because they like it and it's a toy. and they like to play with the toy. sorry you don't get a toy that can potentially mow down a bunch of school children or people in a mall. that's something we have to talk about. and there should be a buy back. there's no question. >> quickly. i have a couple seconds. there was no question who the former president was talking about today in the statement. >> i think that's probably accurate. i think that the president was trying to walk a fine line. between reminding president trump that he has power through his bully pulpit and adhering to the tradition that president's do not criticize successors. >> thank you. i appreciate it. presidential candidate castro calling out trump and has more to say. he'll be here next. the price match guarantee. so if you find your room at a lower rate, hilton is like... we're gonna match that rate and give you an extra 25% off. what would travel sites do if you found a better price? 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>> this is just a coordinated cheap denial. by the president and by the nra. meant as a distraction. now i don't doubt that in some of the instances the person had an issue with mental health. i believe the bigger driver of the types of incidents that we have seen over the last couple years has been white supremacy. ideology that has been fostered by this president. this president wants to talk about mental health and talk about video games. other things. doesn't want to talk about the fact that we need common sense gun safety legislation. and he never talks in genuine terms about the scourge of white supremacist ideology. he mouths the words. he did that today. you can tell watching him that he didn't mean it. this reminded me of his comments after what happened in charlottesville the second round of comments cleaning up the fact he didn't condemn the neo nazis. he had no feeling in it it. he doesn't mean it. he based his entire political career on fanning the flames of bigotry and division. and hate. and i don't think he'll go back now. that's his political strategy for 2020 unfortunately. >> new details about the dayton shooter social media. he retweeted extreme left wing posts and expressing support. he liked several tweets about the el paso shooting. are you concerned that this is as a possible motive? >> yes. i look forward to more information coming out on what motivated the dayton shooter. we have seen a lot of right wing extremists and seen some left wing extremists. we shouldn't be afraid to call that out. we need to concern ourselves with extremism in all forms. it's clear you have a frequency of white supremacist ideology manifesting itself, showing itself in the lone gunman shooters who carry out the types of acts whether it's the shooter in charleston at the church. or what happened in el paso. >> listen, your running for president. i have it ask you. let's talk about policy here. you're calling for common sense gun reform. what specific actions do you want to see done? >> this is what we need to do as a country, number one universal background checks to make sure people who should not have a weapon don't get one. secondly, limit the capacity of magazines. that shooter in dayton had a drum that i think had 100 rounds as a capacity. that's why he fired off 30 shots in heartbeat. limit those. third, we need to renew the assault weapons ban. as many people have said the ar 15s and similar weapons shouldn't be on the street. that's not what they're meant for. we can do things like invest in the department of justice ability to root out the extremism and to stop it before it shows itself as one of the shooting incidents. i think we need to do all those things. >> always appreciate speaking with you. thank you so much. >> good to be with you. >> another presidential candidate speaking out. biden telling become he thinks white supremacists are winning the soul for the nation. even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible. when didwhen i needed ton? 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>> the white supremacists. they're winning the battle. this is domestic terrorism. when the folks came out of the fields in charlottesville and veins bulging and just coming out from under the rocks carrying torches and bile spewed and in europe and germany in the 30s. kkk and a young woman is killed and the president gets asked tell us about what you think. he said there's very fine people on both sides. for god sake. no president ever said that. and continued. >> you talk about the charlottesville being the defining moment. is this another defining moment? >> absolutely. it's a continuation. this is a president who continues to speak in ways that just are completely contrary to everything who we are. referring to immigrants as mexicans as rapists and talking about the rats in baltimore. the way he talks about people. >> do you blame the president in part for what happened in el paso? >> what i do is his rhetoric contributes to this notion that it's almost legitimizes people coming from the under the rocks. this is white nationalism. this is terrorism of a different sort. but it's still terrorism. >> o'rourke says he believes the president is a white nationalist. do you? >> whether he is or not she's sure using the language of and contributing to the things they say. the idea this guy and el paso talked about what he's going to do is keep paraphrasing, keep the folks the from south america and mexicans from polluting america. from over taking our society. wiping out who we are as -- it's just the kind of thing that the president contributes to. and for the first time, today, the first time i have ever heard him say he condemns white supremacy. white terrorism. >> is the president's response to el paso would have been different in terms of what he was calling for if the shooter was muslim or undocumented immigrant. >> are you kidding? the fact of the matter he would be calling for, anyway. >> it would be. >> i think it would be. we're talking about here. is look at the way he talks about muslims. the way he talks about immigrants. the way he talks about people of color. look at the way he talks about them. almost in subhuman terms. he talks about people of different races and background as if somehow we were -- look you can't define what an american is. based on ethnicity. on race or religion and background. one thing unites us. agreement on the basic formation of the government. we hold the truths all men are created equal. we never live up to it. it's the notion that holds together. how else do you define an american? other a commitment whether they talk about it in terms of constitution or not. the idea that everybody has a chance. everybody should have an equal chance in the country. given a chance they can do something. that's who we are as a nation. america is an idea. it's an idea. bigger than an ocean or powerful than an army. only thing that can undermine america, defeat america, is america itself. >> words from joe biden. dan rather is here. we'll talk about all of this and more. discover card. hi, do you have a travel card? we do! the discover it® miles card. earn unlimited 1.5 miles on every purchase, plus we'll match your miles at the end of your first year. you'll match my miles? yeah! mile for mile! and no blackout dates or annual fee. nice! i was thinking about taking a scuba diving trip! i love that. or maybe go surfing... or not. ok. maybe somewhere else. maybe a petting zoo. can't go wrong. can't get eaten. earn miles. we'll match 'em at the end of your first year. plus no annual fee or blackouts. the discover it® miles card. woman 1: i had no symptoms of hepatitis c. man 1: mine... man 1: ...caused liver damage. vo: epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. vo: whatever your type, ask your doctor if epclusa is your kind of cure. woman 2: i had the common type. man 2: mine was rare. vo: epclusa has a 98% overall cure rate. man 3: i just found out about my hepatitis c. woman 3: i knew for years. vo: epclusa is only one pill, once a day, taken with or without food for 12 weeks. vo: before starting epclusa, your doctor will test if you have had hepatitis b, which may flare up, and could cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. vo: tell your doctor if you have had hepatitis b, other liver or kidney problems, hiv, or other medical conditions... vo: ...and all medicines you take, including herbal supplements. vo: taking amiodarone with epclusa may cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. vo: common side effects include headache and tiredness. vo: ask your doctor today, if epclusa is your kind of cure. on a scale of one to five? 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(vo) the network more people rely on gives you more. in his scripted speech after the deadly shootings president trump blamed the internet, mental illness, video games and a culture that promotes violence. what he did not do was take blame for anything or promise to change his heated rhetoric. joining me now. thank you, sir. i want to read this. before the prepared remarks he tweeted blaming the media for the anger and rage. just after the speech. i want to talk about this. to my fellow members of the press. refrain from quoting the president's words from prepared speeches and headlines and tweets without context. he says the right thing. the real questions are what he does and what he really believes. so, you have been watching this all along. what does he really believe? >> he believes that fear conquers. that's his basic belief. he's about fear. don, this moment in our history which i will make clear i'm here with a strong sense of compassion and grieving. for all the families who suffered in the most recent shootings. this moment in history remind me a great deal of when i was covering the civil rights movement and dr. martin luther king, jr. in the 60s. that was the truth of the situation. then and now it's the job of journalists not to try to hide or obscure but to speak the truth, and that's where we are now. people say, well, i'm not sure president trump is racist, but racist is as racist does. i can't read president trump's heart, but what he does, and you said something very important earlier, and we say in the tweet, you know, you always need to watch not what he -- not so much what he says, particularly when it's a speech written by somebody else for him, that with president trump, any time he tries to speak about hope or compassion, it's about as authentic as a time square rolex because we know he's about fear. fear, to him, is power, and if you want to know what he's really about, it's not the prepared speeches that he gives from the oval office, somewhere around the white house, you go to his rallies and listen and watch his rallies, you read his tweets. you listen to what he says. and you watch what he does. and what he does is all about fear. >> and it's -- you know, i hear people all the time, and you know because, here, because you're here, and you watch. when -- it did not come lightly for me to say -- or easily for me to say the president of the united states is racist or even before that to say the president of the united states is lying, but in journalism, journalists work with facts and with evidence. and all one has to do is look at the evidence, how many things do you have to lay out starting from the redlining to the central park five, to the former president was not born in this country, to what else do you have to lose, to both sides, you know, there are very fine people on both sides, and on and on and on. so all one must do if you're not an ideological person and you're looking at it objectively is just look at the evidence. >> exactly. it's speaking truth. >> yes. >> we said before, racist is as racist does. >> exactly. >> when he does things racist, it needs to be called racist. >> yeah. i think we would be derelict as journalists not to do that. so, listen, i want to play what the former vice president joe biden told anderson about handling grief and loss. the loss of his son, beau. watch this. >> he said, dad, look at me, dad, he said, i'm going to be okay no matter what happens. he knew he only had months to go. and he said, but promise me, dad, promise me you'll be okay. and i said, beau, i'll be okay. find a purpose. something that matters. particularly something connected to the loss you just had. and so, i get up in the morning, i think to myself every morning, is he proud of me? am i doing what he wants? but at a moment, there will come a time when you think of the person you lost, it takes a long while, when you get a smile before you get a tear. and that's how you know you're going to make it. >> are we missing a consoler in chief? >> well, this brings to mind one of the principal roles of a president, one of the hallmarks of any great president, is at times of national tragedy, the president becomes the chief consoler for the nation. look back over history that, you know, most of our political and civic leaders through history, the great ones, have always had the ability to last through the occasion of tragedy. go through the list. washington, lincoln, teddy roosevelt, fdr, eisenhower surprised some people, reagan. they had a sense of the poetry of our democracy. now in more recent years -- now, we have to keep in mind, let me say, we have to keep in mind that america has never lived up to its loftiest ideals but the whole ideal of great leadership is to keep us aspiring to do that and that means, among other things, that in times of tragedy, we're compassionate, we're inclusive, we grieve as a nation, as neighbors. now, all through history, those presidents i mentioned have been able to rise to the occasion. now, in more recent years, we've had president clinton after the oklahoma city bombing. president george w. bush after 9/11. president obama after the church shooting in south carolina. >> and newtown as well. >> they were -- they were able to rise to the occasion and pull us together as a country because they were able to give their own sense of the poetry of our national identity. now, i ask you to stop, what everyone thinks of president trump, like him or don't like him, quite not ever made up their mind, he's never in the time he's been in office, he's never been able to do that, and i think the basic reason, and i think it's clear, definitive, truth, so he should speak it, is that he's so wrapped up in fear that fear is everything to him. his power. and fear and dividing the country is what he's about. he sees himself as the president of people who support him where the need, the ache in the country, i think this goes cross party lines, the ache in the country is for him to behave and speak as a president of all the people, not just the people who support him. thank you, don. >> thank you. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ four three two one happy school year! "fine. no one leaves the table "fine! we'll sleep here."." "it's the easiest, because it's the cheesiest" kraft. for the win win. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. with the nation grappling with the senseless violence that has killed 31 people in el paso and dayton, president trump declaring that hate has no place