Van Jones tore into Donald Trump for suggesting that profiling Muslims will end mass shootings in America.
On Monday, Jones, a CNN contributor, decided to show up to work with a load of facts to go after Mr. Trump’s latest comments about minorities. Sunday, the mogul did a phone interview on CBS’ Face the Nation where he spoke lengthily about the horrific gay club shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead.
Mr. Trump came up with the following idea to stop mass shootings in the United States: racial profiling. Trump explained:
“Well I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country. Other countries do it, you look at Israel and you look at others, they do it and they do it successfully. And I hate the concept of profiling but we have to start using common sense and we have to use our heads.”
He added:
“It’s not the worst thing to do.”
Trump went on to push for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US saying it would have prevented the attack despite the well-known fact that Omar Mateen, the mass murderer, was as American as apple pie.
Equipped with data and real statics, Jones pointed to the sad fact that mass shootings are predominantly carried out by white Christian men, who are often battling some form of mental issue. Jones said:
“I just think it’s really interesting that we’re talking about racially profiling in the context of mass shootings. The vast majority of the people who are doing the mass shootings in America aren’t Muslims at all.”
CNN host Brooke Baldwin interjected:
“Young white men…”
Jones continued:
“You are seven times more likely to be killed by a right wing extremist — a racist or an anti-government nutjob — seven times more likely than a Muslim. If I came on TV and said let’s start racially profiling white men, let’s start racially profiling young, white men who are loners with bowl haircuts, people would think, ‘Wow, that’s a pretty unfortunate conclusion for you to come to.’ If a Christian shoots somebody, we don’t say a Christian shot them. But if a Muslim shoots somebody, we say a Muslim shot them. I think that’s starting to muddy the waters.”
Here is some data Mr. Jones left out, Muslims make up about 1% of the American population, yet they are responsible for more or less 20% of the mass shootings.
Conclusion: Muslims and lone white males need mental help, so they do not go over the edge after a divorce, getting fired, being unable to socialize and having financial issues. Those are real problems that both sides of the political spectrum are not ready to address.
