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.
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.
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