After revelations the New Zealand shooter issued a manifesto naming President Donald Trump "a symbol of renewed white identity," U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand Scott Brown rejected giving a murderous "extremist" "any credibility whatsoever."
"I don't give any credibility whatsoever to the ramblings of somebody who's rotten to the core and clearly is an extremist of the worst kind who could walk into two mosques and, without any care whatsoever, kill people," Brown told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
"I don't give any credibility to it. I'm not going to read it. I encourage others not to read it. I'm not going to give him the time of day."
A New Zealand shooting suspect's manifesto gave support to President Trump "as a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose," as CNN's Jake Tapper pressed Amb. Brown on whether white supremacy has been on the rise in the era of President Trump.
"I have been here almost for two years — I haven't seen it here," Amb. Brown said of New Zealand. "That's why it's a little bit numbing. I'm trying to come up with words. I wish I could come up with words as to how I and others feel here right now."
Amb. Brown refused to conflate a hateful New Zealand attack on a mosque that left at least 49 dead and many others injured as a function of President Trump's rhetoric.
"There's been no time in my political or diplomatic life that I have ever questioned our government — whether it's this government or any other prior government's commitment to end racism, stop bigotry, to really deal with Islamophobic attitudes," Brown told Tapper.
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