Senior Republicans speak out against white supremacy after El Paso massacre

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz denounced Saturday's shooting in El Paso as a "heinous act of terrorism and white supremacy."

He was one of several Republicans to speak out over the weekend against white supremacy in the wake of a shooting at a Walmart where the gunman killed 20 and wounded 26.

Just before the El Paso attack, the suspect posted a diatribe against immigrants, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News. He railed against immigrants in Texas and pushed talking points about preserving European identity in America.

Federal prosecutors were treating the shooting as a domestic terrorism case.

Unlike some of his Republican colleagues, Cruz stopped short of calling for background checks on firearms.

However, after the shooting in El Paso and a second mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday, where a gunman killed at least nine people and injured 27 others, there were also hints of a possible shift in conservative attitudes on gun control.

In a front-page editorial, the right-leaning New York Post newspaper called to "ban weapons of war."

The paper appealed to President Donald Trump to "Come up with answers. Now. Beginning with the return of an assault-weapons ban."

"It does not have to be this way. It should not have to be this way. Mr. President, do something — help America live without fear," wrote the paper.

It also suggested other measures that politicians could take, including better background checks.

This was a line that other high-profile Republican senators, including Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and Susan Collins (R-Me.), took over the weekend.

"Time to enact common-sense legislation in Congress to empower states to deal with those who present a danger to themselves and others — while respecting robust due process," tweeted Graham on Sunday, who supports so-called "red flag" measures that allow law enforcement to seize firearms from people who may pose a danger to themselves or others.

Toomey released a statement pushing Congress to pass the legislation he proposed, together with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), to expand background checks on all commercial firearm sales.

Collins, meanwhile, defended her record supporting closing loopholes in background checks "to prevent the sale of firearms to criminals and individuals with serious mental illness."

A growing number of Democrats have called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to cancel the August recess so that they can take up gun control legislation in the wake of the two mass shootings.

Cruz, who said he was "deeply horrified by the hateful anti-Hispanic bigotry expressed in the shooter's so-called 'manifesto,'" was not alone among Republicans in calling out white supremacy after the shooting.

Unlike many Democrats, the Republicans speaking out against white supremacy did not lay any blame on Trump for encouraging white nationalists.

Democratic hopefuls in the 2020 election sharply criticized the president over the weekend. They argued that his reluctance to denounce white nationalism bears some responsibility on the shooting in El Paso.

Beto O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman whose district included El Paso, said Saturday that Trump "is a racist and he stokes racism in this country."

In February, Trump visited El Paso and held a rally to drum up support for his wall on the border with Mexico.

Trump said in March that he did not view white nationalism as a growing global threat, after an attack by a white supremacist on two mosques in New Zealand that killed 49 people. On Sunday, he condemned the El Paso attack and the Dayton, Ohio mass shooting.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the grandson of former president George H.W. Bush, said that "standing firm against white terrorism" should be a national priority, noting that he served in Afghanistan where his mission was to "fight and kill terrorists."

Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas tweeted that "White supremacy has no place in this world," while Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and senior adviser, also referred to the El Paso shooting as "white supremacy," calling it is "an evil that must be destroyed."

On Sunday, White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway called for unity and the need for America to "come together."