In reacting to the El Paso mass shooting, Alex Jones and TX Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick sound a lot alike

[TomCADem]

Is there any difference between the right wing fringe and the Republican mainstream in the Trump era?

https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/tx-lt-gov-dan-patrick-nearly-indistinguishable-alex-jones-el-paso-white-nationalist-mass

Toxic conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick both attempted to baselessly connect a mass shooting that targeted Latinos to upcoming anti-facism protests.

On August 3, a man armed with an assault weapon opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, TX, killing 20 people and leaving 26 other people injured. Shortly before opening fire, the gunman reportedly posted a manifesto to far-right message board 8chan in which he expressed hatred for Latino immigrants and complained of the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” According to ABC News, the gunman told law enforcement after being taken into custody that “he wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as possible.”

But in the wake of the shooting, both Patrick and Jones pivoted to the boogeyman of “antifa” to distract from the obvious fact that the gunman was inspired by right-wing rhetoric about Latinos and immigration.

Even while media reports on the mass shooting remained hazy, Patrick called into Fox News on August 3 and said, “You know, I was looking at a story recently…where Antifa is posting, you know they want to come down to El Paso and do a 10-day siege. Clear message to Antifa: Stay out of El Paso.” Andy Ngo, an editor of right-wing website Quillette, has recently drawn attention to the upcoming anti-fascism protests, which call for the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.