The death toll making this among the worst mass shooting in american history. Im pretty shocked. Im scared to be honest. I just want to find my mom. Someone needs to tell me where she is. After a month of President Trump stoking racial resentment. For law abiding citizens, not for criminal aliens. And daytonb, ohio nine more gunned down in the entertainment district. This is a very safe part of downtown and a popular destination for visitors. Ill talk to el pasos congresswoman escobar and speak to cory booker of new jersey. Joining me kasi hunt, and former republican governor of North Carolina pat mccrory. This is sunday and this is a special edition of meet the press. Announcer the longest running show in television history, this is a special edition of meet the press with chuck todd. Welcome to a tough sunday morning in america. The plague of Mass Shootings has reached twice now weve seen massacres with a death toll in the dozens. First in what appears to be an act of domestic terrorism in el paso, texas. On the mexican border. A 21yearold gunman walked to a walmart with a militaryAssault Rifle and killing at least 20 and wounding more than two dozen others ppt come on. Hands up. Hand up. Reporter as of this morning the death toll among the 10 worst in american history. Heres how witnesses described that scene. Kind of sounded liking fireworks and then they started coming closer together. Like the shots are going do, do, do do. Theres cops with guns saying get on your knees. I helped a little girl full of blood and the mother came around the corner. She was shot in the chest. A killer was shot and place under to custody. He posted an estessay and praised the killer at christchurch, new zealand. And now we have to ask whether his harsh words are inspiring violence. We woke up this morning to the news at at least nine more were killed in a shooting overnight in dayton, ohio. A shooter was killed by police. Add these two horrible incidents to the shooting in gilroy, california and wooer arer looking at one of the most deadly and unsettling events in history. More were killed in Mass Shootings in 24 hours than afghanistan in 2017 and 2018 combined. Weve got those stories covered this morning. And Pete Williams joins me now. So, pete, let me go in recent order here. We dont know much more about dayton. This happened past midnight beyond what we were able to just report there. Its about 1 00 a. M. , a popular bar in a popular night spot. One purerson heavily body armor with a high capacity magazine opens fire but why and who he is are not clear. He certainly was planning something or had planned it but we dont know motive beyond that. Motiveb seems apparent because of how prepared he was and what he was carrying. Now to el paso. Weave r weve learned a lot more about the first of all theyre searching his house, looking at social media, searched the house he was staying apparently the night before the shooting. About an eighthour drive. He lived in allen, texas, a suburb of dallas and dreev droveb to el paso, it appears that day. And were looking at the timeline. This essay posted online on an extremists website. Same website that the shooter of the synagogue, the white supremacist who did that one and the christchurch all posted on this same extremists website. Theres a real commonality but it appears this thing was posted 19 minutes before the first 911 call comes from the Shopping Center in el paso. Aware of this posting before they knew it was leading to a shooting. The essay on this attack the essay itself says hes been thinking about this. 21yearol. This threat off domestic terrorism. More people have been killed by or arrests made in connection with domestic terrorism than foreign terrorism. So theres been a real change since 9 11. After theb Oklahoma City bombing, domestic terror was the big thing and focussed on foreign terrorism. Now it appears its at least as big a threat and coming back to what you say. Theres a real commonality. The internet has speeded up the ability by which they inspire each other. Going to be a busy sunday for you. Busy week. Thank you very much. Joining me on the phone is the mayor off dayton. Our condolences to the city of dayton this morning. What more could you tell us overnight . I think thank you, chuck, for your condolences for our community. Our kmaucommunitys had a prett tough year already and what were most amazed by for this incident was that in under a minute the police were able to really stop the subject stop the shooter from shooting. And im amazed if they had not been on the site, we could have had deaths and injured in the hundreds because he had this aklike Assault Rifle he was using with high capacity magazines. It is startling how many how much carnage there was considering he was able to be stopped in less than a minute. How armd and how prepared was this gunman . This gunman had body armor on. He was carrying a. 223 high capacity magazine. So he was prepared to do some serious deaths inb our community. And obviously with nine fatalities in under a minute and over 20 people injured, im just incredibly grateful to the Police Department that stopped this action. For us in dayton, this is the second tragedy to hit our community this summer. First a tornado that hit the community in dayton in may. The difference is one was completely preventible and one of these tragedies has now happened 250 times this year in our country and yet nobody does anything about it. One last comment for elected officials in washington. I want to give you that forum. Im sorry . One last comment from elected officials in washington, one last comment you have for them about this incident . My question is 250. How many more cities have to go through Mass Shootings before somebody does something to change the law . I know youre busy this morning. Thanks for taking a couple minutes with me on the phone and again our condolences. Hang in there, dayton. Joining me from el paso is veronica escobar. Welcome to meet the press. And you were having a town hall meeting at the timef of this incident and all of the sudden a moment of frenzy a bit. Law enforcement officials telling you. Tell me more about how you learned off this incident in real time there. So chuck, we were having a town hall meeting and we were in the middle of our q and a when my staff approached me. I knew something was wrong. It felt unusual and i was told about the active shooter and that our law the forcement agents who were there to take care of us during the town hall and keep us safe there. They needed to rush over to the scene. And so we asked folks. We told them it was the end of of of the meeting. We told them we needed to calmly get home and stay home. My staff continue to follow the news and get updates. And it can kept getting worse and worse and worse. And were so grateful to ours. And to all of the medical personnel who have been working through the night to keep many of the victims alive. So im going toing ask you this. Were learning more about the shooter in el paso, a motive with him there. Simultaneously you heard the mayor off dant talk about 250 when it comes to having one of othese massacres happen on their watch. What do you see is your responsibility Going Forward as an elected official in washington d. C. How should you confront this . My primary responsibility right now is to be with the community, comfort the community. Beff oservice to the community. And i first want to say that el paso is one of the most compassionate, generous, kind, warm, loving communities in the country. Were standing in front of United Blood Services where people have been lining up to give blood over an hour in advance. Yesterday the line was wrapped around all the buildings where donations were taking place. Peephole to be turned away. With the Family Reunification Center food had to be turned away because there was so much in aburnedance. So my primary responsibility is here with my kmunlt. But as a legislator, all of us we have to talk about whats really happening. And we have to speak the truth. Its not wlaults kwhau whats tlr truth . Not that we just a gun epidemic in this country but we have a hate epidemic. I know its been a rough 24 hours for you and your community. Hang in there. Were all with you. Thank you. And joining me from san antonio, former housing secretary, julio castro. Secretary castro, welcome back to meet the press. I know you have a lot of contacts in texas government. What more can you tell us about what youve l weve learned have been released. There were about 20 individuals killed. That this gunman was in his early 20s, a white male and of course theres tremendous amount of grief and sadness and all of us are thinking about the families in el paso who have been victimized. This is going to spark a couple of of conversations. One is on domestic terrorism and one is on our gun culture. What do you see here as what we need start tackling . We need tackle both of these things and unfortunately as weve seen time after time theyre related. On the one hand its clear what we can do to cut down on the number othese incidents. We need commonsense gun reform. This happened in texas, a state that has one of the highest rates of gun ownership. Concealed carry, open carry. The shooter knew that hed be walking into a store where a lot of people would be carrying a gun. That did not deter him. The answer is not more people with guns. The answer is to make sure that especially the semiautomaticing weapons, weapons of war not on the street and that we do things like universal background checks and red flag laws so people that shouldnt have their hands on weapon dont get them in the first place. At the same time theres a toxic brew in the United States and this is just one more example of that, of White Nationalism. The manifesto that apparently this shooter wrote that says that hispanics are taking over the state of texas and changing the country. This echoes the kind of language that our president encourages, talking about invaders and that others who talk about people bringing can disease and changing the culture. This idea of replacement. Theres a very toxic brew of White Nationalism that is arising. A i know that doesnt effect by any means the vast majority of americans. But unfortunately what we see is an increasing number of incidents and so we need Pay Attention to this and we need do something about this. The fbi director has said that this is a particular problem right now in the United States. The president of the United States the president of the United States has not, righting . The director of the fbi has acknowledged there is a rise in White Nationalism thats tied to domestic terrorism. The president has not. Is there any constructive role he can play or because of how often he uses the language of off racial resentment, does he just not have the credibility to anything to fix this problem . This president started his campaign in 2016 on a path of racial resentment and fanning the flames of off bigotry. Thats how he believes he won in 2016. Thats how he thinks hes going to win in 2020. Unfortunately he doesnt have any credibility anymore. When he didnt step up right away and condemn the neonazis in charlottesville. Allowing that crowd for 13 seconds to chant send her back a couple of of weeks ago, he doesnt have credibility. But like all americans i hope, i still hope this president will do what most psresidents have done throughout our country is we have to do everything we can to unite americans instead of fantling the flames of bigotry. Have to be a big enough man in these moments to do that. Not many republicans have used that language. Do you think others need to in order to get the president to see this problem . I wish they would call it out, that they would be honest about whats happening here. Because you know and i know very well that if this had been somebody of the muslim faith that had committed this kind of act, immediately they would go to this idea, this bogus idea that we need keep all muslims out of the country, which is ridiculous. I think instead what we need do is address the issue with commonsense gun reform and also address this toxic White Supremacy that is brewing in the country. I know its a tough day for texas. Tough day for america. More people dying in the last 24 hours than we had troops die in afghanistan the last two years. Its been a rough weekend. Thank you for coming on the chair. And lester holt will anchor the weekly nitely news tonight from el paso. Still to can come. White house its perspective. White house its perspective. Volunteerism. Fundraising. Giving back. Subaru and our retailers have given over one hundred and sixtyfive Million Dollars to charity. We call it our love promise. And its why you dont even have to own a subaru to love a subaru retailer. Love. Its what makes subaru, subaru our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy whoohoo greattasting ensure. With nine grams of protein and twentysix vitamins and minerals. Ensure, for strength and energy. And twentysix vitamins and minerals. Since my dvt blood clot i was thinking. Could there be another around the corner . Or could it turn out differently . I wanted to help protect myself. 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Ask your doctor about eliquis. Mno kidding. Rd. But moving your internet and tv . Thats easy. Easy . easy . Easy. Because now xfinity lets you transfer your Service Online in just about a minute with a few simple steps. Really . Really. That was easy. Yup. Plus, with twohour appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. Now all you have to do is move. That thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. Its just another way were working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. Welcome back. Joining me now is senator cory booker off new jersey. Welcome back to meet the press. I know on the issue of guns nobody has a more aggressive plan to tabbal it than you. But i want to set the policy prescriptions aside and how do you assess what were go through in the last 24 hours and what weve seen, particularly in el paso . Obviously we all are greaving for the victims, their families and the people who are going to have a long painful road to recovery from gun violence. I want to speak with moral clarity right now because i worry that were having conversations that dont just focus on an understanding that we are all responsible to each other in this country. We have moral bonds and fabric othis is country. We have a president of the United States who is particularly responsible. I have in my head the idea of we reap what we sew and this harvest of hate violence were seeing lies at his feet. When you have the president from the highest moral office in our land talking about invasions and infestations, the kind of things that come out of his mouth. Its so harmed the moral fabric of our nation. Hes responsible. Hes responsible when hes taken no action whats oevrl to condemn White Supremacy, even when the it head of the fbi is talking about that. We have a president not taking that responsibility, whos doing a nothing to address the deepening crisis in our country of this kind of violence. Okay. What can he do . Youve outlined where he may not have credibility with Many Americans to do this and obviously were not going to get into whether he has the history of being able to somehow admit if if hes wrong or i dont want to get into that. Is there anything he can do in your mind that would at least begin a healing process here . So chuck, its not that he doesnt have the credibility. Please understand what im saying. Im saying the president is contributing to whats going on now. Hes sewing seeds of hatred. What can he do are two things that must be done. One is we need to deal with this issue of guns in our community. Ease of access. The fact you can be on the terrorist no fly list and fail trunk full of weapons at gun store from a casual seller. We have a uniquely american problem because of the uniquely american phenomenon that anyone who wants to kill somebody can easily find a loophole. I have the boldest plan but its based upon evidence. If you need a license to driveb a car in this country, you should have a license to buy a gun and possess it. We know states that have done that have dramatically dropped the levels of violence. The problem is we have a patchwork of laws in this country. Someone who cant get a gun in california, shoot over to another state that has lax gun laws. So there are specificing things we should be doing that are commonsense and again the moral fabric of our nation. We have a country right now that is boiling over in hate. We have seen this before. My parents grew up in a generation trying to overcome lynchings and violence over africanamericans, bombings of churches of little girls and we came together, a black and white and christian and jewish and did something about this but we have a bhooz not only is incapable of that kind of love but hes stoking hate. Hes responsible for the crisis in this country and doing nothing to actually solve it. There is one republican i know of calling this white spremism is. If the president doesnt accept the respon