The suspect, Robert Bowers, complained about immigrant "invaders" six days before the shooting.
While there is no such invasion happening, this rhetoric has blanketed right-wing media in relation to the Central American migrant caravan that's been in the news this month.
And Bowers apparently noticed. On October 21, he wrote on Gab, "I have noticed a change in people saying 'illegals' that now say 'invaders'. I like this."
well . . .
On Fox News, the word "invasion" was used in relation to the caravan more than 60 times in October, according to closed captioning transcripts. (This includes repeats of programs.) "Invading" was brought up more than a dozen times.
On Fox Business, the word "invasion" was invoked more than 75 times in October, mostly on Lou Dobbs' program.
Fox's Tucker Carlson referenced an "invasion" as early as October 16.
Eleven days later, on October 27, minutes before entering the Tree of Life synagogue, the suspect wrote another post about "invaders" and said "I'm going in," seemingly linking his anti-immigrant attitudes to his attack on the synagogue.
One of the congregations that rents space at the synagogue, Dor Hadash, reportedly has a partnership with HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has a long history of helping refugees.
The suspect claimed in his final post on Gab that "HIAS likes to bring in invaders that kill our people."
