德克萨斯州民主党参议院初选中，两位领先候选人在周日上午奥斯汀发生致命枪击事件（造成3人死亡、10余人受伤）后，均未回应有关伊斯兰恐怖主义的担忧。
相反，就在竞争激烈的参议院初选前一天，詹姆斯·塔拉利科（James Talarico）和得克萨斯州民主党众议员贾丝明·克罗克特（Rep. Jasmine Crockett）将重点放在了祈祷的有效性上，并发出了反对刻板印象化移民的警告。
“我相信祈祷的力量。我相信祈祷能改变生活。但如果要求上帝解决我们自己不愿解决的问题，那是极其愤世嫉俗的行为，”塔拉利科在接受MS Now采访时表示。
“我们祈祷了，上帝派来了提出常识性枪支安全提案（如全面背景调查、红旗法）的立法者，”他补充道，这也是他在周末枪击事件后在竞选活动中发表过的言论。
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贾丝明·克罗克特众议员和詹姆斯·塔拉利科
（马克·费利克斯/彭博社通过盖蒂图片社；加布里埃尔·V·卡德纳斯/彭博社通过盖蒂图片社）
克罗克特则在TikTok上警告观众，不要将暴力事件与少数族裔和移民过度关联。
“听着，每次发生这样的疯狂事件，黑人都会坐在一起说，‘哦，希望他们不是黑人’，因为我们知道这会给我们带来额外的针对。我们知道移民社区可能也在屏息说，‘哦，希望不是移民干的。’”
然而，克罗克特和塔拉利科都没有提及伊斯兰恐怖主义，也没有说明在近期美国对伊朗伊斯兰共和国采取军事行动的背景下，这是否会给美国人带来额外风险。
他们对这一话题的沉默遭到了至少一名共和党观察员的谴责。
“简直令人作呕。詹姆斯·塔拉利科和贾丝明·克罗克特在指责辛勤工作的得克萨斯州人——那些去教堂并合法拥有枪支的人，却不谴责实施这一滔天罪行的激进伊斯兰恐怖分子，”共和党全国委员会发言人扎克·克拉夫特（Zach Kraft）表示。
53岁的恩迪亚加·迪亚涅（Ndiaga Diagne）在奥斯汀一家酒吧外开枪，其连帽衫正面印有“真主的财产”字样。尽管具体动机尚不清楚，但警方在搜查其住所时发现了伊朗国旗和伊斯兰领袖照片。
迪亚涅被当地警方击毙。
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联邦探员在得克萨斯州奥斯汀搜查潜在恐怖袭击现场
（亚伦·E·马丁内斯/盖蒂图片社）
此次枪击事件发生在周六美国和以色列对伊朗军事领导层发动打击并杀死其最高领袖阿里·哈梅内伊之后。
周一的新闻发布会上，奥斯汀警察局长丽莎·戴维斯（Lisa Davis）表示，当地警方已邀请联邦当局参与调查，将此次袭击视为可能的恐怖主义行为。
“我们正在全面审视这一事件。我们看到了这些迹象，也在考虑国内发生的事件。动机——所有这些都是当前调查的重点，”戴维斯说道。
当被问及立法者如何防止未来袭击时，克罗克特称美国大多数枪击者是白人。
“如果我要给你事实，说明这些大规模枪击事件中的枪手是谁，我可以保证——绝大多数是白人男性，本土出生。但我们没有看到他们采取任何行动，”克罗克特表示。
她没有解释作为参议员将如何利用这一见解来阻止未来的枪击事件。
“我们确实需要在枪支问题上采取行动。不要坐在那里说问题出在移民身上。也许问题在于你对枪支的法律过于宽松，”她补充道。
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贾丝明·克罗克特众议员在宣布参加2025年12月8日得克萨斯州达拉斯的美国参议院民主党初选时对记者讲话
（美联社照片/LM Otero）
塔拉利科表示，美国应阻止危险人物进入该国。
“危险人物不应被允许获得枪支，”塔拉利科重申了他的红旗法案提案，该政策旨在通过更严格的背景调查来筛查潜在购枪者。
塔拉利科和克罗克特的竞选团队均未回应置评请求。
这与得克萨斯州资深共和党参议员约翰·科宁（John Cornyn）、州检察长肯·帕克斯顿（Ken Paxton）和众议员韦斯利·亨特（Wesley Hunt）形成鲜明对比——后三者是竞争激烈且火药味十足的共和党参议院初选中的前三热门候选人。
“这就是你开放边境四年的后果。这就是2000万人非法进入你国家的后果。你根本不知道他们是什么人。这就是你在顶层领导层出现失职的后果。这也是特朗普总统当选的原因。他当选是因为他想修复移民体系，”亨特周一晚间在休斯顿郊区接受福克斯新闻数字版采访时表示。
作为西点军校毕业生、曾在战斗中驾驶阿帕奇直升机的亨特，是其国会第二任期内崛起的“MAGA明星”，他表示：“我们允许像这个人这样的‘动物’任意杀害我的得克萨斯州同胞和美国同胞。我们没有妥善审查就把他们放进来，因为边境开放，解决这个问题完全是一场彻底的灾难。这正是特朗普总统正在积极努力做的事情，这就是为什么我们必须加倍执行政策，找到这些人，驱逐他们并清除他们。”
帕克斯顿几小时前在韦科接受福克斯新闻数字版采访时表示，当局“必须在人们入境时更好地进行审查”。
“没有完美的体系。如果我们实施移民政策，就不可能有完美的体系。我们确实需要更好地审查人们，国会必须弄清楚如何做到这一点，”帕克斯顿强调。
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“我认为，非法移民给体系带来了巨大负担，这使得执法部门更难追踪每个人，”帕克斯顿表示。“我们这里有太多来自其他国家的人。执法部门资源有限，很难追踪所有人。”
科宁周日在圣安东尼奥接受福克斯新闻数字版采访时被问及枪击事件，他回应称：“这让我更清楚地认识到，在人们越过边境之前进行审查的重要性。”
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“问题部分在于，拜登政府四年来实行开放边境政策，让不知多少人进入美国，”科宁指责道。“这不是关于继续让人们进入美国的问题，因为我们知道特朗普总统已经加固了边境。这是关于已经在美国境内的人的问题。”
他称此次枪击事件是“人们被激进主义化的典型例子”。
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利奥·布里塞诺（Leo Briceno）是福克斯新闻数字版国会团队的政治记者，此前曾为《世界杂志》撰稿。
Neither of the two frontrunners in the Texas Democratic Senate primary addressed concerns about Islamic terrorism in the wake of a deadly shooting on Sunday morning in Austin that left three dead and more than a dozen others wounded.
Instead, just a day ahead of a competitive Senate primary, James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, focused on the effectiveness of prayer and delivered a warning against stereotyping immigrants.
“I believe in the power of prayer. I believe prayer changes lives. But there is something profoundly cynical in asking God to solve a problem we’re not willing to solve ourselves,” Talarico said in an interview with MS Now.
“We prayed, and God sent lawmakers with commonsense gun safety proposals like universal background checks, red flag laws,” he added, in comments he’s also made on the campaign trail in the wake of the weekend shooting.
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico(Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Gabriel V. Cardenas/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Crockett, for her part, warned viewers on TikTok against extrapolating conclusions about the violence to minorities and immigrants.
“Listen, every time there’s some crazy situation like this, black folks sit around and say, ‘Oh, I hope they’re not black,’ because we know that’s going to be an additional target on our backs. We know that the immigrant community was probably holding their breath and saying, ‘Oh, I hope it wasn’t an immigrant.’”
But Crockett and Talarico did not address any mention of Islamic terrorism or whether it might pose an additional risk to Americans in light of recent U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Their silence on the topic drew condemnation from at least one GOP observer.
“Absolutely disgusting stuff. James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett are blaming hardworking Texans who go to church and lawfully own guns, instead of the radical Islamic terrorist who committed this heinous act,” Zach Kraft, an RNC spokesman, said.
Ndiaga Diagne, 53, opened fire at a bar scene in Austin while wearing a hoodie with the words “property of Allah” emblazoned on the front. While his specific motives remain unclear, police searching his home with a warrant later discovered an Iranian flag and photos of Islamic leaders.
Diagne was shot dead by local police.
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Federal agents comb the scene of a potential terrorist attack shooting in Austin, Texas.(Aaron E. Martinez/Getty Images)
The shooting comes on the heels of strikes carried out by the U.S. and Israel on Saturday that targeted Iran’s military leadership and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a press event on Monday, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said local police had invited federal authorities to the scene to investigate the attack as a possible act of terrorism.
“We’re looking at the totality of this. We see these indicators, we’re thinking about events and what’s occurring in the country as well. The motives – all of those things, that’s what the investigation is about right now,” Davis said.
Asked how lawmakers could prevent attacks in the future, Crockett said she believes a majority of shooters in the U.S. are White.
“If I was to give you the facts as to who the shooters have been in these mass shootings, I can guarantee you — the vast majority of them have been White, male and homegrown. But we don’t see them taking any action on that,” Crockett said.
Crockett did not explain how she would use that insight as a senator to prevent shootings in the future.
“We need to actually do something about guns. Don’t sit there and say that it’s the immigrants. Maybe it’s your lax laws when it comes to guns,” she added.
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett speaks to reporters after announcing her run in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Dec. 8, 2025, in Dallas.(AP Photo/LM Otero)
Talarico said the U.S. should prevent dangerous people from entering the country.
“Dangerous people should not be allowed to get guns,” Talarico added, doubling down on his red-flag proposals, policies that aim to screen would-be gun buyers against stiffer background checks.
Neither Talarico’s nor Crockett’s campaign replied to a request for comment.
It’s been a very different take from longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Wesley Hunt, the top three candidates in the competitive and combustible Republican Senate primary.
“This is what happened when you had four years of an open border. This is what happens when 20 million people enter your country illegally. You have no idea what they are. This is what happens when you have a derelict of duty at the top of the ticket with leadership. And this is why President Trump, quite frankly, got elected. He got elected because he wanted to fix the immigration system,” Hunt said Monday night in a Fox News Digital interview in suburban Houston.
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Hunt, a West Point graduate who flew Apache helicopters in combat and who is a rising MAGA star in his second term in Congress, argued that “we have allowed animals like this man that are arbitrarily murdered my fellow Texans and my fellow Americans. We let them in this country without properly vetting, because we had an open border, and it was a complete utter disaster to fix this problem. That’s exactly what President Trump is actively trying to do, and this is why we have to double down on our policies, but to find these people, deport them and get rid of them.”
Paxton, speaking with Fox News Digital in Waco a couple of hours earlier, said that authorities “have to do a better job vetting people when they come here.”
“There’s no system that’s perfect. If we have immigration, there’s going to be no system that’s perfect. We do need to do a better job of vetting people, and Congress is going to have to figure out how to do that,” Paxton emphasized.
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“I think that the burden on the system has been all the illegal immigration, which makes it harder for law enforcement to keep track of everyone,” Paxton said. “We’ve got so many people here that are from other countries. It’s very difficult for law enforcement, with the resources that we have to keep track of everybody.”
Asked about the shooting, Cornyn said in a Fox News Digital interview in San Antonio on Sunday, “What it does emphasize to me is the importance of vetting people before they come across the border.”
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“Part of the problem is that the Biden administration, for four years, had open border policies and let who knows what into the country,” Cornyn charged. “This isn’t about people continuing to come into the country, because we know President Trump has secured the border. This is about what happens with people already here.”
He said the shooting was an example of “what happens when people become radicalized.”
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Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.