The @POTUS Twitter account addressed the Portland train stabbing Monday morning. The tweet, which did not mention the victims by their names, called the attacks "unacceptable." At the time of this article, Trump's personal @RealDonaldTrump account had not mentioned the deaths of 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and 53-year-old Ricky John Best at all.
@RealDonaldTrump's most recent Twitter activity includes four consecutive tweets about "fake news."
According to the Denver Post, Portland stabbing suspect Jeremy Joseph Christian is a "self-described white nationalist." Christian is accused of killing Namkai-Meche and Best Friday after they intervened on his anti-Muslim rant aimed at two young women on the MAX train. The third victim, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, is expected to survive after being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
In a Facebook post Sunday, journalist Dan Rather called on Trump to call the victims by their names. "I wish we would hear you say these names, or even just tweet them," Rather said. "They were brave Americans who died at the hands of someone who, when all the facts are collected, we may have every right to call a terrorist."
Heidi Beirich, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, told NBC News that Christian's profile seemed similar to others involved in post-election incidents of this nature. "A lot of people popped out of the woodwork to involve themselves in bias incidents," Beirich said. "They got set off by the rhetoric."
