Politicians like to pretend their words don’t influence others’ actions, but if that’s so, why utter them?
In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has said he’ll cut taxes for the middle class and bring the price of medicines down. He’s stated he’ll remove birthright citizenship and that refugee caravans include killers and other ne’er-do-wells.
It’s this last that has got him in even more hot water than usual, fuelling claims that, by normalising xenophobia, he is indirectly responsible for the actions of Robert Bowers, the man arrested for killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
The shootings came on top of a series of pipe bombs sent to prominent Trump opponents, including Hillary Clinton, allegedly by Floridian Cesar Sayoc, a bloke who claims native American heritage and has a van festooned with symbols referencing the Ku Klux Klan.
Nope, Trump says, his inflammatory shouts of “lock her [Hillary] up” and “fake news” have nothing to do with these actions.
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