Sen. Minority Leader Charles Schumer speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., Sept. 27, 2017. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, accused President Donald Trump of “politicizing” the deadly attack in New York City after Trump blamed Schumer for the immigration program that purportedly allowed in the attacker.
“I have always believed and continue to believe that immigration is good for America,” Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said Wednesday in a statement. “President Trump, instead of politicizing and dividing America, which he always seems to do at times of national tragedy, should be focusing on the real solution — anti-terrorism funding — which he proposed cutting in his most recent budget.”
On Wednesday, the morning after the truck ramming that killed eight and injured at least a dozen people, Trump on Twitter repeated a report that the Uzbekistan citizen suspected in the Lower Manhattan attack had obtained a Green Card, or residency status, in 2010 through the so-called Diversity Visa lottery program. The report has yet to be confirmed.
“The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty,” Trump tweeted about the suspect, Sayfullo Saipov. “I want merit based.”
Schumer helped author the lottery system, and introduced the bill that created it in 1990. when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Originally it was tailored for potential Irish immigrants, but eventually expanded to other countries, including Israel. More recently, Schumer has been a leading advocate of replacing the system with the merit-based system Trump apparently prefers.
In remarks Wednesday on the Senate floor, Schumer appeared furious with Trump, contrasting the president’s approach with George W. Bush, who was president in 2001 at the time of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center — not far from where Tuesday’s attack took place.
“Now, Mr. President, I’ve seen the tweets,” Schumer said. “After September the 11th, one of the first things that President Bush did was invite Senator [Hillary] Clinton and me to the White House, where he pledged to do whatever was in his power to help our city. President Bush, in a moment of national tragedy, understood the meaning of his high office and sought to bring our country together. President Trump, where is your leadership?”
In calling on Trump to restore anti-terrorist funding, Schumer was referring to proposed rollbacks in Department of Homeland Security funding for programs that aim to prevent domestic terrorist attacks and attacks by “lone wolves.” Top Trump security officials have discounted the threat of “lone wolves,” saying it would be more efficient to focus on backers of terrorism.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that Saipov appears to have been inspired by “ISIS and radical Islamic tactics,” but that investigators “have no evidence yet of associations or continuing plot or associated plots, and our only evidence to date is that this was an isolated incident that he himself performed.”
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