New York Post: Rep. Ilhan Omar slams Trump official for pointing out Minnesota church shooter’s trans identity: ‘Not the moment to point fingers’

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) accused White House official Sebastian Gorka on Sunday of wanting “to deflect from the reality” of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting by pointing out gunman Robin Westman’s transgender identity.

Gorka, who serves as President Trump’s deputy assistant and senior director for counterterrorism, argued on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Westman had a clear “ideological” motive for targeting the Annunciation Catholic School earlier this week — where two students were killed and more than a dozen other children and adults were injured while they prayed at Mass.

“That’s what terrorism is,” Gorka said of the mass shooting, noting that Westman’s twisted manifesto included antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric and the phrase “kill Donald Trump” was scrawled on one of the shooter’s gun magazines. 

The White House official argued that the massacre perpetrated by Westman, who confessed he was “‘tired of being trans,” is part of a disturbing trend of mass shootings committed by people struggling with their gender identity.   

“In just a couple of years, we have seen seven mass shootings involving people of transgender nature or who are confused in their gender identity,” Gorka claimed. “That is inordinately high.” 

“It’s not about the sexual proclivities of the individual. It’s the fact that nobody seems to notice a very disturbing pattern towards violence,” he later added. 

Which completely negates the fool’s attempt to link the shooting to the killer’s “transgender nature”!

Critics point to high profile shootings have been carried out by transgender or nonbinary attackers in recent years.

The perpetrator of the 2023 shooting at Nashville’s Convent School, which left six people dead — including three 9-year-old students — identified as transgender.

The gunman who killed five people and injured two dozens others at a Colorado Springs gay bar in 2022 identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, lawyers said.

Additionally a 2019 shooting at a Denver-area high school involved one transgender attacker, and a 2018 shooting at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Maryland, also involved a transgender gunman.

Omar, who followed Gorka on CNN’s Sunday show, criticized the White House official for bringing up Westman’s gender identity. 

“It’s really unfortunate that we have people, you know, like him, speaking on this,” the far-left congresswoman told host Brianna Keilar. 

“He talked about their transgenderness, and then he says that shouldn’t really matter,” Omar continued. 

“These people are all over the place because they want to deflect from the reality.” she continued, “which is that, there was, someone who came into that school, through the window, and assassinated two beautiful angels, as they prayed.” 

“This is not the moment to point fingers,” Omar argued, as she called for banning assault weapons and more resources to address mental health issues in response to the shooting.

When asked if Westman’s transgender identity should be investigated as a potential motive for the shooting, the “Squad” rep said it should, along with everything else. 

“I’ve always said it’s really important for us to look at every factor, so that we can understand what happened, what signs were missed and have the ability in the future to prevent these kinds of senseless deaths,” Omar responded.

https://nypost.com/2025/08/31/us-news/rep-ilhan-omar-slams-trump-adviser-for-focusing-on-minnesota-church-shooter-robin-westmans-trans-identity

USA Today: Senator snaps back at RFK Jr. for linking antidepressants to Minnesota shooting

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, said Kennedy should be fired after he suggested antidepressants played a role in the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic School.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the wake of the Minneapolis school shooting that his agency would study whether antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs “might be contributing to violence,” prompting a Minnesota senator to accuse him of “peddling bulls—.”

Kennedy, in a Fox News interview, said HHS is looking at a group of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and “some of the other psychiatric drugs.” The Health secretary has long raised concerns about SSRIs and linked them to school shootings.

2019 study found most school shooters don’t appear to have been prescribed psychotropic drugs and “when they were, no direct or causal association was found.”

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, said Kennedy is focused on the wrong issue.

“I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don’t kill kids, antidepressants do,” Smith wrote on social media. “Just shut up. Stop peddling bulls—. You should be fired.”

Police say Robin Westman, 23, opened fire at Annunciation Catholic School, killing two children and injuring 18 people. Westman wrote in a journal about suffering from depression and having suicidal and homicidal thoughts, according to media reports. It’s unclear if Westman was taking any psychiatric drugs.

“We need to explain why all this violence is happening and we need to look at every possibility,” Kennedy said on Fox.

Democrats, in the wake of yet another shooting, are raising concerns about access to guns.

“There are 400 million guns in this country,” Smith wrote on social media. “More guns than people. In America, we are ten times more likely to be shot in a school or playground than any other developed nation.”

Kennedy said during an Aug. 28 news conference in Texas that “people have had guns in this country forever.”

“Something changed, and it dramatically changed human behavior, and one of the culprits we need to examine is whether the fact that we are the most over-medicated nation in the world,” he added.

Some conservatives have also focused on Westman’s gender identity.

Westman’s name was legally changed to Robin because “minor child identifies as female,” a judge wrote, according to media reports. Kennedy’s Fox News comments were prompted by questions about Westman’s transition process from male to female.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference that “anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity.”

Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic whose views on several health matters are considered fringe by mainstream experts. His tenure as the nation’s top health official has been tumultuous. He has sought to oust Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez amid a policy disagreement, but she is refusing to step down.

Monarez’s contested ouster, less than one month after the Senate confirmed her to the role, prompted the resignations of three other top CDC officials in protest of Kennedy’s leadership, including his direction on vaccines.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/29/rfk-minneapolis-shooting-ssri-psychiatric-drugs-hhs/85884626007

Daily News: Calls for reporter’s dismissal after linking school shooter to Trump

Calls for ABC reporter to be fired over misleading report linking Minneapolis gunman to Trump

An ABC reporter is facing calls to be fired for misleadingly linking Minneapolis shooter to Donald Trump.

Chief Investigative Reporter Aaron Katersky was reporting on the events inside the Annunciation Catholic School on Wednesday where Robin Westman killed two kids.

Katersky mentioned the transgender gunman having left a video manifesto in which she revealed a twisted obsession with school shooters, along with a dislike of President Trump, and made a mockery of the Church.

Katersky said: ’23-year-old Robin Westman was able to leave what police called a video manifesto that they’re now going through to try and establish motive. 

‘There are also photos of the weapons, and they include all sorts of writings: the names of past mass shooters, criticism of Israel, the name of President Trump written on the guns.

‘There are also racial slurs, nihilistic statements, all painting the picture of a disturbed individual who carried out this mass shooting on the first week of school at the Annunciation church in Minneapolis.’

His failure to mention the shooter’s disdain for Trump while mentioning the commander-in-chief has caused an outcry online, with the President’s son even making comment. 

Donald Trump Jr. shared the ABC footage to his X profile, posting: ‘WTF is wrong with these people!???’

Vince Coglianese, Daily Caller editor, added: ‘ABC reporter refers to ‘the name of President Trump written on the guns’ without mentioning that the message was ‘k*ll Donald Trump.’

Fox News’ Mary Katherine Ham and her colleague Guy Benson posted: ‘So irresponsible. An obvious lie’, and ‘We call this obfuscation ‘anti-journalism’.’

Matthew Boyle, Washington Bureau Chief for Breitbart News Network, commented: ‘ABC should terminate this person immediately.’

Two young children, aged 8 and 10, were killed in the shooting while 18 other victims – 15 of which were children – were wounded.

Trump called for flags be lowered to half-staff in honor of those who lost their lives when Westman started firing into the church.

The president branded the shooting a ‘senseless act of violence’ and urged prayers for the victims.

Police said the two children who lost their lives were killed as they sat in the church pews, while others ducked for cover as the horror unfolded. 

Westman, who was transgender, was armed with three guns – a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol – police said. All were used in the attack and bought legally. 

Police are now investigating the killer’s motive for the shooting, including probing the disturbing videos posted on Westman’s since-deleted YouTube account.

Westman also showed the camera pages of handwritten notes in a final letter to family and friends.

In the letter, Westman claimed to have cancer caused by a vaping habit.

‘I think I am dying of cancer. It’s a tragic end as it’s entirely self inflicted. I did this to myself as I cannot control myself and have been destroying my body through vaping and other means,’ the shooter wrote. 

Westman went on to write about wanting ‘to go out on my own means’, adding: ‘due to my depression, anger and twisted mind, I want to fulfill a final act that has been in the back of my head for years,’ Westman said.

The note was signed with the name ‘Robin M Westman, 2002-2025’ and what appeared to be a bird drawing.

As well as the warped letter, the video also showed a stash of gun magazines, with white writing scrawled on them.

Several school shooters’ names including ‘Lanza’ for Sandy Hook mass shooter Adam Lanza was seen on some of the cartridges. One of the other cartridges was labeled: ‘For the children.’

Will somebody please call a whaaaambulance for the Boy King aka Crybaby in Chief! The reporter reported the news. It’s what he does. Get used to it.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/media/article-15044443/ABC-reporter-Minneapolis-gunman-Trump.html

Daily Beast: Karoline Leavitt Shares Post Blaming ‘Demonic Forces’ for Minneapolis Shooting

Trump’s press secretary shared the post to her Instagram Stories.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shared a post to Instagram that asked people to pray for the victims following the tragic shooting at a Minneapolis church that claimed the lives of two children. However, not all is what it initially seems.

A look at the full post, originally made by The Conservateur, a conservative lifestyle magazine, reveals a second slide that blames a “demonic force” for the shooting.

The full post reads, “There is a demonic force moving when a transgender maniac sprays bullets at pews of Catholic school children. Shame on the progressive leaders and lawmakers who make this about the man in the White House, the second amendment or so-called trans bigotry.”

“This is a corruption of minds to commit horrific acts of violence. We pray for the victims, their families, and the entire annunciation community during this grueling time. And yes, prayers do count and do work.”

Language similar to that used in the post has been liberally deployed by Trump allies and supporters in the hours since the shooting, which took place at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Following the discovery that the shooter may have been transgender—FBI Director Kash Patel identified the shooter as a male, but legal documents requesting a name change show the shooter identified as female—MAGA was quick to suggest a correlation between their gender identity and the shooting and begin blaming “the trans agenda.”

Commentator Matt Walsh was one such figure, posting on X that “now is precisely the moment when trans militants are the MOST dangerous. They’ve lost. The game is over. Now they’re more desperate than ever,” and that it was “time to have a national conversation about common sense restrictions on transgenders.”

Bo Loudon, Barron Trump’s best friend, tweeted, “America does NOT have a “gun problem.” America HAS a transgender problem. Transgenderism needs to be labeled as a MENTAL ILLNESS!”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a statement to social media, confirming that the shooter was a 23-year-old “claiming to be transgender”.

The statement continued, “This deranged monster targeted our most vulnerable: young children praying in their first morning Mass of the school year. This deeply sick murderer scrawled the words ‘For the Children’ and ‘Where is your God?’ and ‘Kill Donald Trump’ on a rifle magazine.”

“This level of violence is unthinkable. Our deepest prayers are with the children, parents, families, educators, and Christians everywhere. We mourn with them, we pray for healing, and we will never forget them.”

We have confirmation that the shooter at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, MN was a 23 year-old man, claiming to be transgender.

This deranged monster targeted our most vulnerable: young children praying in their first morning Mass of the school year. This deeply sick…— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 27, 2025

Despite claims from conservatives that transgender people are overrepresented in mass shooting events, a report from the Violence Prevention Project identified just one trans shooter out of over 200 who carried out mass shootings between 1999 and 2024—Audrey Hale, who killed six people in a 2023 shooting at a Nashville elementary school. 192 of the 200 shooters included in the report were men.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/karoline-leavitt-shares-post-blaming-demonic-forces-for-minneapolis-shooting

WCCO Radio Minneapolis: Civil rights advocates are condemning ICE courtroom arrests in Minneapolis

Members of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, gathered in protest outside Minneapolis’s Whipple Federal Building, claiming ICE agents have detained at least four people after they showed up for their scheduled immigration court hearings.

Leaders like Ward 9 Minneapolis Councilmember Jason Chavez are demanding an end to these practices.

“We’re going to be strengthening our separation ordinance,” says Chavez, “we’ll do that by working with community members that are leading the work on the ground because the folks on the grounds are the ones that are protecting our community.”

Member of The Interfaith Coalition on Migration John Benda describes what volunteers with his organization have seen.

“Our volunteers who do court watch here, are telling us the stories of agents waiting outside the court hearing rooms, and people think they’re free to go outside and they are apprehended.”

Advocates argue these arrests are a part of an aggressive, nationwide deportation agenda under the current administration.

You do what they tell you to do, and then they arrest you and deport you anyway.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/civil-rights-advocates-are-condemning-ice-courtroom-arrests-in-minneapolis/ar-AA1IAVRI

Minneapolis Star Tribune: The Trump administration is turning up the pressure on Minnesota

Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said the Republican White House is ‘actively against’ the state amid growing list of federal investigations, funding freezes.

President Donald Trump’s administration has adopted an aggressive posture toward Minnesota in his second term, launching a series of investigations into the state’s laws, canceling federal dollars with no warning and conducting sweeping law enforcement raids without any advance word to local authorities.

A probe into Minnesota’s affirmative action laws, announced last week, is the latest salvo in an escalating battle between the White House and the Democrats who run the state. The relationship is noticeably more hostile than in Trump’s first term.

The Justice Department’s newest challenge to Minnesota hinged on a policy issued by the state Department of Human Services requiring supervisors to provide justification if they hire a non-diverse candidate. The protocol has been in place since 2002, tied to a state law passed nearly four decades ago, according to the state agency.

The White House has been aggressive in challenging blue-state policies out of step with its agenda. Since Trump returned to office in January, his administration has launched investigations and court challenges to Minnesota’s laws. It also has made moves that directly affected the day-to-day operations of the state, including canceling funding without warning and slowing or halting communication between agencies.

“They are actively against us,” said DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who has become a prominent foe to Trump since his stint on the national Democratic ticket last year.

Walz avoided public clashes with Trump’s first administration but now openly admonishes the president and his allies.

The DOJ is pursuing four probes in Minnesota ranging from state laws surrounding transgender athletes, college tuition rates for undocumented students and, on the local level, a policy instituted by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office directing prosecutors to consider race in charging decisions and plea deals.

In announcing the probe of Minnesota’s diversity hiring policy, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said last week the Civil Rights Division “will not stand by while states impose hiring mandates that punish Americans for their race or sex.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the DOJ’s investigations “garbage” and “nonsense” pursuits without merit during an interview Monday with the Minnesota Star Tribune. He said he believes the Trump administration is targeting predominantly Democratic states.

“We’re probably more targeted than a red state,” Ellison said.

Another major blow to Minnesota by the feds came in late May when the same Justice Department division moved to dissolve Minneapolis’ federal consent decree, the long-awaited agreement brokered between the DOJ under the Biden administration and Minneapolis meant to usher in sweeping changes to the city police department. In their dismissal, DOJ officials under Trump described such court-enforceable agreements as federal overreach and anti-police.

Some city officials and advocates decried the timing of the announcement, just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

Such major decisions have sometimes come with no warning at all. The Trump administration abruptly froze and canceled some funding streams to Minnesota earlier this year, including grants to track measles, provide heating assistance and prevent flooding.

On Monday, Ellison joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to unfreeze more than $70 million for Minnesota schools. Ellison said Trump’s Education Department recently cut the funding “without warning.”

“They don’t cooperate,” Ellison said. “Even during Trump [term] one, it was common for us to be in touch with federal partners. Now, they don’t. It’s like they want to catch you by surprise.”

The hostilities go beyond investigations and court challenges to Minnesota’s laws. The state’s communication with the federal government has ground to a halt, Walz said. When state officials asked for a meeting with a local Veterans Affairs official, they were told it would take six to eight weeks to get an answer.

“If I want to talk to him now or my administration wants to talk to him, we have to put in a request to D.C. It has to be approved by the White House in addition to the VA, before he is able to engage in any meaningful conversation with us,” Walz said.

Federal law enforcement agencies didn’t warn state officials before they raided a Mexican restaurant in south Minneapolis in June, Walz said. That raid prompted confrontations between protestors and law enforcement on E. Lake Street after misinformation spread that an immigration sweep was under way.

An exception is the local U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI, which worked with state law enforcement to arrest suspect Vance Boelter after the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband last month. Walz said the state has “fantastic relationships” with those two agencies.

But Trump refused to call Walz after the assassinations of the Hortmans and the serious wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Trump said it would be a waste of his time and then proceeded to insult the DFL governor. Vice President JD Vance did speak with Walz, however.

For his part, Walz also has been outwardly antagonistic toward Trump, comparing his administration to “wannabe dictators and despots” and accusing him of using federal immigration agents as a “modern-day Gestapo.” The Department of Homeland Security referred to Walz’s comments as “sickening.”

The broader breakdown in communication with the federal government is a notable change from Trump’s first term, when Walz could more easily reach administration officials. Walz told a group of States Newsroom editors in June that Vice President Mike Pence called him every couple of weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic to try to deliver masks and other relief.

Walz said he worries about how the federal government would treat Minnesota in a natural disaster. Critics have noted a contrast in how Trump treats blue and red states; he promised full support for Texas following deadly flash floods but criticized elected Democrats in California who sought federal help after wildfires devastated Los Angeles.

“The way California was treated on wildfires, that worries all of us,” Walz said. “How are we going to be treated when these things happen?”

It’s King Donald vs. America! King Donald will lose!

https://www.startribune.com/in-trumps-second-term-walz-says-federal-government-is-actively-against-minnesota/601420489

Newsweek: ICE arrests 11 Iranian nationals in US amid fears of secret terror cells

The Trump administration said Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had arrested 11 Iranian citizens over the weekend who were in the U.S. illegally.

Among those arrested was a man ordered for removal from the United States 20 years ago, and others accused of breaking immigration laws.

Goody goody for them! If there are any Iranian terrorists running around loose in the U.S.A., I sure wouldn’t count on ICE to catch them! They’re too busy snatching gardners off the front lawns of L.A.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-arrests-iranian-nationals-us-citizen-2089977

MSNBC: Elon Musk’s bad-faith response to the Minnesota shootings risks encouraging political violence

In the wake of the attacks, prominent right-wing social media commentators and conspiracy theorists were quick to falsely lay blame at the feet of Democrats.

The shootings of two Minnesota state legislators and their spouses this weekend — resulting in the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband and grievous injury to Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, who were shot multiple times — is the latest horrific episode of political violence across the country.

It won’t be the last.

In the wake of the attacks, prominent right-wing social media commentators and conspiracy theorists were quick to falsely lay blame at the feet of victims and Democrats. After reports surfaced that Gov. Tim Walz had appointed the Minnesota shooting suspect, who was taken into custody Sunday, to a state workforce development board, right-wing social media personality Mike Cernovich asked on X whether Walz had unleashed an “assassin” and “ordered the political hit against a rival who voted against Walz’s plan to give free healthcare to illegals.” Elon Musk was swiftly mocked online after he blamed the “far left” for the killings in a post on X.Expand article logo  Continue reading  Back to Home

These conspiracy theories are patently wrong. The suspect in custody for Saturday’s killings has reportedly voted for Trump and is a supporter of the president, according to a close friend of his who spoke with NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis, and he appears to have deliberately targeted progressive and liberal candidates and causes. Police discovered a list of other targets, including Democrats who support abortion rights and Planned Parenthood clinics. He was an ordained Christian minister who had taken several trips to proselytize overseas.

When political leaders use rhetoric that demonizes their opponents, declaring them enemies who are worthy of revenge or pledging retribution, their supporters may feel emboldened or empowered to take violent action.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/minnesota-shootings-suspect-elon-musk-response-conspiracies-rcna213152

Newsweek: The Scholar Who Predicted America’s Breakdown Says It’s Just Beginning

Fifteen years ago, smack in the middle of Barack Obama‘s first term, amid the rapid rise of social media and a slow recovery from the Great Recession, a professor at the University of Connecticut issued a stark warning: the United States was heading into a decade of growing political instability.

It sounded somewhat contrarian at the time. The global economy was clawing back from the depths of the financial crisis, and the American political order still seemed anchored in post-Cold War optimism — though cracks were beginning to emerge, as evidenced by the Tea Party uprising. But Peter Turchin, an ecologist-turned-historian, had the data.

“Quantitative historical analysis reveals that complex human societies are affected by recurrent—and predictable—waves of political instability,” Turchin wrote in the journal Nature in 2010, forecasting a spike in unrest around 2020, driven by economic inequality, “elite overproduction” and rising public debt.

Now, with the nation consumed by polarization in the early months of a second Donald Trump presidency, institutional mistrust at all-time highs, and deepening political conflict, Turchin’s prediction appears to have landed with uncanny accuracy.

In the wake of escalating protests and the deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles under President Trump’s immigration crackdown, Turchin spoke with Newsweek about the latest escalation of political turbulence in the United States—and the deeper structural forces he believes have been driving the country toward systemic crisis for more than a decade.

In his 2010 analysis published by Nature, Turchin identified several warning signs in the domestic electorate: stagnating wages, a growing wealth gap, a surplus of educated elites without corresponding elite jobs, and an accelerating fiscal deficit. All of these phenomena, he argued, had reached a turning point in the 1970s. “These seemingly disparate social indicators are actually related to each other dynamically,” he wrote at the time.

“Nearly every one of those indicators has intensified,” Turchin said in an interview with Newsweek, citing real wage stagnation, the effects of artificial intelligence on the professional class and increasingly unmanageable public finances.

https://www.newsweek.com/peter-turchin-political-violence-donald-trump-barack-obama-riots-2083007

Hegseth asserts Trump can send troops anywhere to protect ICE agents conducting raids

Pentagon budget official estimated LA troop deployment to cost $134 million.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Tuesday that he and President Donald Trump have the power to send National Guard and active-duty troops anywhere in the country to ensure Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can enforce the law, an assertion that — if carried out — would open the door to a historic clash between Trump and Democratic governors.

“We believe that ICE, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state, in any jurisdiction in the country,” Hegseth told the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee.

“ICE ought be able to do its job, whether it’s Minneapolis or Los Angeles,” he added.

President Donald Trump also opened the door for possible military deployments elsewhere, telling reporters on Tuesday that if protests break out in other states “they will be met with equal or greater force.”

Civil War II is really here. 🙁

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hegseth-testify-capitol-hill-house-dem-calls-marine/story?id=122668997