Americans had yet to acknowledge the problem of homegrown white-supremacist terrorism; U.S. President Joe Biden warned on May 17. He made the comment in Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were fatally shot on May 14. The alleged assailant posted a white supremacist manifesto before the attack.

"Look, part of what the country has to do is look in the mirror and face reality. We have a problem with domestic terror," Biden told reporters at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. "That’s what the intelligence community has been saying; that’s what the military has been saying for a long time."

He said existing laws were enough for combating the problem but the American public had yet to confront it.

"We have to admit it. I don’t know why we don’t admit what the hell is going on," he added.

'White supremacy is a poison'

Earlier that day, the President and First Lady Jill Biden had met privately with relatives of the victims. Later, the two addressed the public in Buffalo's Delavan Grider Community Center. She thanked the families "for opening up your hearts to us and for letting us be with you today."

The President said: "White supremacy is a poison. It’s a poison running through our body politic." "And it’s been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes."

Biden noted that the alleged assailant was thought to have been motivated by a belief in the Great Replacement theory, which asserted that a conspiracy was underway to displace white Americans from their social and political position and replace them with people of color.

"I call on all Americans to reject the lie. And I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain, and for-profit," Biden said.

When asked at the airport if he was referring to Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson, Biden declined to single anyone out. The text of Biden's remarks can be found in their entirety on the White House website.

Schumer tells Fox News to stop spreading Great Replacement theory

The leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate, Senator Chuck Schumer, took to Twitter to call on Fox News to stop popularizing the Great Replacement theory. "Stop disseminating false white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theories on your network," Schumer said.

Schumer included a link to a New York Times article about a letter he had sent to the network's owner Rupert Murdoch and Fox executives. The paper said Schumer's letter had accused Carlson of promoting the Great Replacement theory. The article noted that the alleged assailant in the May 14 shooting had posted a 180-page text expressing a particularly harsh version of the theory.

The New York Times noted that Carlson had challenged Schumer to a debate but Schumer had declined.

The paper pointed out that nothing indicated that Carlson had influenced the alleged assailant in the Buffalo shooting.

The Guardian noted that a number of Republican leaders had expressed support for the Great Replacement theory or similar ideas. The paper recalled a 2021 Twitter post by Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida supporting Carlson's promotion of the theory.

The paper said similar opinions had been expressed by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, and Congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

Biden: get assault weapons off our streets

Speaking at the Delavan Grider Community Center, Biden said: "We can keep assault weapons off our streets. We’ve done it before." The New York Times noted that this was a reference to a 10-year ban on assault weapons which Biden had spearheaded as a U.S. Senator in the 1990s. The paper noted that President Barack Obama had not managed to win congressional approval for gun control proposals, and neither had Biden so far.

In Buffalo, Biden said: "The American experiment in democracy is in a danger like it hasn’t been in my lifetime...

These hate-filled attacks represent the views of a hate-filled minority. We can’t allow them to distort America."

CNN noted that investigators were now examining the 180-page manifesto that the alleged assailant posted online. CNN said that document and other evidence might enable the authorities to press other charges against the alleged killer.
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