President Donald Trump's rhetoric has "given license to racists to act out their worst impulses," Democratic presidential hopeful Tom Steyer told MSNBC's "Hardball."
"It's not just that [Trump's] fomenting an atmosphere of hate and racial divisiveness – I think we all know he's doing that – he is also making it clear that violence is a response to that," Steyer, who is also a billionaire hedge fund manager, said on the show Tuesday night. "He's been doing it recently with regard to the four young congresswomen of color, where he's encouraging chants of 'send them home' – get rid of them, they're not real Americans is the implication of that."
The Democratic presidential hopeful added, "If you look at the change in hate crimes since he's been president, he's effectively given license to racists to act out their worst impulses. And he's doing the exact opposite of what the president of the United States should do, which is to talk about the values of justice and equality that are the very core of our country."
Steyer emphasized these core values "should be animating every presidential candidate and certainly every president to bring this country together, instead of to try to divide us for his own political purposes."
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