GOP senator on Atlanta shooter: 'It may be that he was too fond of Asian women'

Without evidence, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) speculated on Monday that the man who shot and killed people at three spas in the Atlanta area on March 16 may have done so because he was “too fond of Asian women.”

Robert Aaron Long has been charged with multiple counts of murder in the shooting deaths of eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent.

Cassidy made his comment during an interview on the conservative Newsmax TV network.

Discussing media coverage of the case, host John Bachman asked Cassidy if he had seen “any evidence” to back up the claim that the killings were racially motivated.

Cassidy said there was “no evidence for, there’s no evidence against,” noting, “The guy was white and most of the victims were Asian.”

“It may be that he was too fond of Asian women and that’s what he somehow was afraid of within himself,” Cassidy told Bachman. He also said, providing no evidence, “But there was underlying mental illness.”

The shooter has blamed his action on a “sex addiction.”

Cassidy did not respond to a request from the American Independent Foundation to provide evidence for his claim that “underlying mental illness” was the cause of the killings.

From the March 22 edition of Newsmax TV’s “John Bachman Now”:

JOHN BACHMAN, host: I wanted to talk about this, the media coverage, of the Atlanta spa shootings. They continue to perpetuate that this was a racially motivated crime. Have you seen, has anyone told you anything, is there any evidence to back that up?

 

BILL CASSIDY: There’s no evidence for, there’s no evidence against. Right now, clearly, the guy was white and most of the victims were Asian. But there was underlying mental illness. And underlying mental illness changes everything. And we know that. Period, we know that.

It may be that he was too fond of Asian women and that’s what he somehow was afraid of within himself.

 

Until we know that, it is better not to jump to conclusions, unless you wish to push a narrative, a narrative which otherwise served your purposes, and that is a cynical manipulation of a tragic event.

 

BACHMAN: Do you think that’s what Sen. Warnock was doing on the floor and then on the Sunday shows yesterday?

 

CASSIDY: I think when anybody jumps to conclusions prior to knowing all the facts, and then lays out a whole course of action as to where they’re jumping to a conclusion, that you have to wonder — it seems apparent, but I don’t want to jump to a conclusion myself — it does seem apparent, as if there’s a political narrative which they’re seeking to further.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.