When news broke that the alleged shooter at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, was a foreign woman and an avid animal rights activist, it didn’t take long for the rightwing attacks on so-called liberal violence to be hurled.
To the surprise of no one, among the loudest voices was President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
The shooting left at least three people injured and the assailant, 39-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In the hours immediately afterwards, the younger Trump celebrated the fact that the shooter wasn’t another white guy, bashing People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and YouTube.
You think there’s any chance whatsoever that a mass shooters hateful Instagram and YouTube channels would be pulled immediately if they were NRA members as opposed to liberal Vegan PETA activists? Asking for a few million friends in the @NRA
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 4, 2018
So you’re saying not likely an @NRA member??? https://t.co/UqKUBb93pA
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 4, 2018
He also responded to a tweet and asserted that the left would “find a way” to blame “right-wing gun nuts” for the attack.
They will find a way. Just wait. https://t.co/NjQ9j9E1mj
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 4, 2018
Yup I look forward to the whole PETA has more mass shooters than the NRA conversations. I’m sure they will cover that… right? https://t.co/2taoidxApp
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 4, 2018
Trump also retweeted several posts by users who shared in his partisan attacks that accused the mainstream media of ignoring the shooting.
So the San Bruno YouTube HQ shooter was Female, foreign, a Vegan animal activist, off the rails mentally ill, didn't use an AR-15, and shot up a building in the strictest gun control state in America….how fast do you think the mainstream media is going to bury this? pic.twitter.com/oHnkSiolGv
— Mindy MF Robinson 🇺🇸 (@iheartmindy) April 4, 2018
The YouTube shooter was a @peta activist.
PETA IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!
PETA IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!
PETA IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!
(That’s how this works now, right?)
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 4, 2018
Trump was not alone in his remarks, as GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, baselessly asserted that the attack may have been carried out by “an illegal immigrant.”
“You were going to discuss with me about sanctuary cities and the sanctuary state movement, and it fits right into what you’re talking about right now,” he said on Fox Business on Tuesday night.
“Would anyone be surprised?” he asked. “Would anyone listening to you right now say, ‘Well, this certainly wouldn’t be an illegal immigrant there.’ Well, it could be! Everybody knows that could be! . . . Sanctuary city ― my foot! We should be making sure we emphasize that any illegal in this state should be sent back whether he’s a criminal or not, but especially criminals.”
Ultraconservative firebrand Ann Coulter also made a connection to immigration as a whole in her response to the incident.
Report: YouTube shooting "had no known connection to terrorism," govt officials said. But it had a big, fat connection to immigration, i.e. govt policies that could be changed.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) April 4, 2018
Aghdam’s family has since confirmed she had held a grudge against YouTube, and that in recent weeks she had expressed outrage over her videos being de-monetized, which means that advertisements would not be run on her content.
“She was angry,” Aghdam’s father said in an interview with to The San Jose Mercury News. Her family, from San Diego, reported she was missing to authorities on March 31. Aghdam was an avid social media user, and several videos depicted angst and discontent with YouTube.
The newspaper elaborated:
Aghdam was prolific on social media, posting videos and photos on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Her YouTube channel included strange workout video clips, graphic animal abuse videos and vegan cooking tutorials. But recent posts show evidence of her growing frustration.
[…]
On a March 18 Instagram post, she railed at YouTube: “All my youtube channels got filtered by youtube so my videos hardly get views and it is called “merely relegation.” This is also happening to many other channels on youtube. This is the peaceful tactic used on the internet to censor and suppress people who speak the truth and are not good for the financial, political … gains of the system and big businesses. I recently got filtered on instagram too and maybe its related to youtube and youtube staff asked instagram to filter me here too!!?”
Authorities have not determined a clear motive at the moment, but are currently investigating websites of hers, CNN reported. Aghdam did not have any sort of relationship with any of the three people she shot.
