A demagogue outs himself

In a tweeted statement issued in response to the weekend's tragedies in El Paso and Dayton, former President Obama said that Americans should "soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments."

President Trump's response has something in common with El Paso shooter Patrick Crucius's assertion that his racist views about Hispanics and paranoia about a "Hispanic invasion" predated Mr. Trump. The incumbent president tweeted a quote from Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade: “Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook. President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign. Not many people said Obama is out of Control. Mass shootings were happening before the President even thought about running for Pres.”

Leaving aside the disingenuous character of Kilmeade's rant- President Obama wasn't in the habit of making statements which gave any particular encouragement to the prejudices of homicidal maniacs, nor could any of the mass shootings during his "reign" be traced to his policies or positions- Mr. Obama didn't even mention President Trump by name. Like Crucius's pre-emptive exoneration of the president, methinks both Kilmeade and Mr. Trump doth protest too much. Could either gentleman have missed the point that Mr. Obama had not made a habit of making statements which encouraged homicidal lunatics- or that their very response in the absence of an actual accusation boiled down to an admission that Mr. Trump had encouraged Crucius and people like him with his attempts to stir up unwarranted fear of undocumented aliens- who, Mr. Trump's announcement of candidacy to the contrary, have never been shown to commit crimes- violent or otherwise- more often than anybody else?

Mr. Obama didn't accuse Mr. Trump, specifically, of encouraging the El Paso tragedy. He named no names at all.

If one wants to object that everybody knew who Mr. Obama was talking about, fine. But Kilmeade did- and so did Mr. Trump himself, when he played Cinderella and demonstrated that the shoe fit by volunteering to wear it.