Trump Immediately Begins Trying to Exploit New York Terror Attack for Political Gain

Welcome to WHAT NOW, a morning round-up of the news/fresh horrors that await you today.

Eight people are dead and another 11 are injured after an attacker plowed a pickup truck through a bike lane in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, making it the most deadly terror attack in New York City since September 11, 2001. So, naturally, President Donald Trump, a native New Yorker, was tweeting Wednesday morning to blame Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer.

In case there was a drop of doubt left, Trump also made doubly clear that he was watching and tweeting along with Fox & Friends.

It also shouldn’t be much surprise that this line of attack about suspect Sayfullo Saipov, who arrived in the country from Uzbekistan in 2010, was already being circulated by Breitbart News and Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s former White House adviser on Tuesday night. Federal officials have not publicly confirmed the suspect entered the country through that visa program.

Saipov, a green card holder who drove for Uber, was shot by police after exiting his rented truck but survived. Officials recovered handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck swearing allegiance to the Islamic State, and The New York Times reports that Saipov earlier came to the federal government’s attention as part of an unrelated investigation.

Schumer did play a key role in crafting the legislation to create the Diversity Visa program, which President George H.W. Bush signed into law in 1990 but didn’t take effect until 1995. According to the State Department, the program allows 55,000 immigrant visas per year; applicants are mostly from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. in the last five years. Those granted visas are subject to strict vetting, along with requirements for education and work.

WHAT ELSE?

• Affordable Care Act enrollment begins today. After months of the administration relentlessly attacking the program they oversee, it’s not expected to go well!

WHAT’S NEXT?

• The long-hyped Republican tax reform bill is apparently coming tomorrow, instead of today as originally promised, because it’s not ready.

WHAT FRESH HELL

• Rachel Maddow sent Fox News’ latest insane person with a TV show, Laura Ingraham, flowers, for some unfathomable reason.

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