It’s really hard to keep track of all the horrors these days. Thanks to President Donald Trump’s secret surprise dead-of-night attack on Iran, which unsurprisingly has fueled a widening conflict across the Middle East, it was easy to miss the news that the United States suffered yet another mass shooting.
But you have to hand it to Texas Republicans for their impressive ability to multitask. Not only were they able to deploy their patented, unending xenophobia to cheerlead Trump’s unjustified, illegal attack on Iran, but they also managed to keep some bigotry in reserve to blame the latest mass shooting on literally anything but guns.
Early Sunday morning, Ndiaga Diagne, 53, a Senegalese national and naturalized U.S. citizen, opened fire in a bar in downtown Austin, Texas, killing two people and wounding 14 more before being killed by police. Diagne was wearing a hoodie that said “Property of Allah” and … you know where this is going, right?
Yes, Diagne’s status as a naturalized citizen was, of course, catnip to the worst elected officials in Texas, and they’ve already swung into action to use it as a way to attack immigrants writ large.
According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Diagne was not adequately vetted when he was granted citizenship. How was he not adequately vetted? When did all of this inadequacy take place? Abbott didn’t bother to provide any details to support that claim.
Diagne’s past crimes did get trotted out, of course, and they include such monstrous acts as a misdemeanor charge for a collision that resulted in vehicle damage, and “illegal vending” in New York City 25 years ago.
Related | Why conservatives love guns so much
Rep. Chip Roy, currently vying to follow in the absolutely repugnant footsteps of Ken Paxton and become Texas’ attorney general, took the opportunity to demand that Congress vote to functionally end nearly all immigration.
And Paxton, for his part, took time away from running for a Texas Senate seat to repost a nice little racist call for “no more Islamic immigration” over at Elon Musk’s online Nazi bar.
But how about that “Property of Allah” sweatshirt, right? Surely that was a staunch declaration of Islamist warfare by Diagne, right? Surely this is an act of terrorism!
Maybe—or the dude might just have bought one of the innumerable knockoffs of a sweatshirt Mike Tyson wore 30 years ago after he converted to Islam. Perhaps President Trump could ring Mike and ask him about it, since they are such buddies and Tyson is now apparently a MAHA spokesman?
Now, Texas Republicans would be attacking Diagne as a terrorist regardless, because these people’s tendencies to be hateful racists are unstoppable. However, focusing on immigration and terrorism also allows them to avoid ever grappling with the fact that it’s the guns, stupid.
But conservatives are never going to wrestle with that. They’re in thrall to a death cult, and they’ve taken the rest of the nation along with them. So, our country will continue to have mass shootings, and GOP lawmakers will continue to blame literally anything else.
Getting to hate immigrants—particularly those who might be Muslim—is just an added benefit for people like Abbott, Roy, and Paxton.