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Keller @ Large: Mass Shootings Fraught With Political Importance

BOSTON (CBS) - In the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, the blame game is in full swing.

The echoes of presidential speeches in the El Paso shooter's manifesto have placed President Trump's rhetoric at the center of the national debate. And there's no doubt some of his challengers hear political opportunity knocking.

The aftermath of America's bloody weekend is fraught with political significance. And the first major poll since the mass murders shows why.

Asked who they blame for the shootings, half of all surveyed in a USA Today/Ipsos poll cited the president, along with other factors like the mental health system, racism and loose gun laws. There is sharp partisan division within the 51% blaming Mr. Trump, but nearly a quarter of all Republicans felt that way, along with four in 10 Independents.

The president, of course, disagrees. "I think my rhetoric...brings people together," he said.

But his critics are pouncing.

The violence in El Paso and Charlottesville in 2018 "was sowed from the highest office of the land, where we see in tweets and rhetoric hateful words that ultimately endanger the lives of people in our country," said Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker at the scene of another notorious race-based hate crime, the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre. Added Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden in a speech in Iowa, "In both clear language and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation."

Mr. Trump's pushback suggests he is well aware of the potential political peril at hand.

"If you look at Dayton, that was a person that supported, I guess you would say, Bernie Sanders...Antifa...Elizabeth Warren. It had nothing to do with President Trump," he said.

And as Biden was speaking, the president tweeted: "Watching sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo boring!"

With half the country already blaming Mr. Trump for inciting racial violence, you wonder how long he'll remain bored by the backlash.

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