White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday there is “no question” that the Trump administration’s rhetoric on the coronavirus pandemic has elevated threats against Asian-Americans.
Former Republican President Donald Trump has been repeatedly accused of racism over his use of labels such as the “Chinese virus” when referring to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier on Wednesday, Georgia authorities charged a man with the fatal shootings of eight people, including six Asian women, at Atlanta-area spas, and the violence heightened fears among Asian Americans already rattled by a rise in hate crimes directed at them since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
The bloodshed began Tuesday evening when four people were killed and another was wounded at Young's Asian Massage in Cherokee County. Two Asian women were among the dead there, along with a white woman and a white man. The surviving victim was a Hispanic man.
A report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism this month showed that hate crimes against Asian Americans in 16 major US cities rose by 149% from 2019 to 2020, a period when overall hate crimes dropped 7%.
