Obama slaps Trump for rhetoric that ‘normalizes racist’ and anti-immigration sentiments

Barack Obama forcefully denounced the rhetoric that Donald Trump has repeatedly employed to describe immigrants and minorities on Monday in a rare public rebuke of his successor.

Obama issued a hard-hitting statement after Trump’s address to the nation on gun violence that echoed 2020 Democrat’s claims that the sitting the president is encouraging race-based hate and violence with charged language about non-white Americans and migrants. 

‘We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people,’ Obama said.

The statement did not directly target Trump. But the intended audience was clear.  

Barack Obama forcefully denounced the rhetoric that Donald Trump has employed while in office to describe immigrants and minorities on Monday in a rare public rebuke of his successor

Just hours before, Trump had provided his own take on mass shootings that included a denouncement of white supremacy but did not take stock of his own conduct. 

Trump blamed the internet, social media, computer games and ‘mental illness’ on Monday for the two mass shootings that killed 30 people this weekend – but finally spoke out against ‘white supremacy’ after being accused of fueling hatred with his own language.

Trump used a White House address to the nation to outline what he said were the causes of the mass murder,  accusing the internet of providing a ‘dangerous avenue’ which was twisting minds.

‘Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun,’ he said. 

He had linked mass murder prevention to illegal immigration in an early-morning tweet that included a call for stricter background checks. The proposal had Democrats comparing Trump’s ideology to pre-war Nazism.

But in a televised Diplomatic Reception Room address, he made no mention of the demand, and instead offered the first full-throated condemnation of white supremacy and domestic terrorism of his presidency.

‘The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online, consumed by racist hate. In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.

‘These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul,’ he stated.

Trump said he was directing the Justice Department to develop an advanced monitoring system for social media channels to catch would-be mass murderers before they commit a crime – a new potential clash with the social media giants whom he has repeatedly attacked in recent months.

‘We must recognize that the Internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demented acts. We must shine light on the dark recesses of the Internet and stop mass-murders before they start,’ he said.

Trump also assailed violent video games, before finally addressing the issue of guns, where he offered only a call for a ‘red flag’ law and said he’d take other steps such as involuntary confinement to keep mentally-ill individuals from getting their hands on firearms. 

Donald Trump called on Monday for a 'cultural change' in America to curtail gun violence in an Diplomatic Reception Room address, in which he denounced 'white supremacy' and 'racist hate' online he said is driving sick people to commit mass murders

Donald Trump called on Monday for a ‘cultural change’ in America to curtail gun violence in an Diplomatic Reception Room address, in which he denounced ‘white supremacy’ and ‘racist hate’ online he said is driving sick people to commit mass murders

And, in a embarrassing mistake, Trump referred to a shooting in ‘Toledo’ at the end of his address when a Sunday shooter actually targeted Dayton. 

‘May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo,’ he said in closing. 

He’d correctly named the Ohio city that a ‘twisted monster’ attacked at the beginning of the direct-to-camera remarks.

His otherwise scripted remarks came after two days of muted response to the shootings.

They are unlikely to silence his critics with Democrats – especially some of the 2020 field – calling for gun control action and condemning the president’s language.

Trump’s speech, with Mike Pence beside him, noted in passing the high number of Mexican citizens killed, but did not address directly the contents of Patrick Crusius’ hate-filled online manifesto.

‘We are outraged and sickened by this monstrous evil, the cruelty, the hatred, the malice, the bloodshed and the terror,’ Trump said.

‘Our hearts are shattered for every family whose children, husbands and wives were ripped from their arms and their lives.

‘America weeps for the fallen. We are a loving nation, and our children are entitled to grow up in a just, peaceful and loving society. Together, we lock arms to shoulder the grief. We ask God in heaven to ease the anguish of those who suffer. And we vow to act with urgent resolve.’

 Trump instead focused on the online elements of the crime.

‘The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online, consumed by racist hate. In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,’ he said.

‘These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul.

‘We must recognize that the Internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demented acts. We must shine light on the dark recesses of the Internet and stop mass-murders before they start.

‘The Internet, likewise, is used for human trafficking, illegal drug distribution and so many other heinous crimes. The perils of the Internet and social media cannot be ignored, and they will not be ignored.’

 Trump also said on Monday that it was time to stop glorifying violence in society, and pointed to ‘gruesome and grisly’ video games.

‘It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately.’ 

He also spoke of legislating for the death penalty – which is already being pursued in El Paso – but not of the substantive gun reforms the Democrats are demanding.

Instead he focused on the access to guns those who are deemed dangerous can have. 

‘Fourth, we must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms, and that if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process. That is why I have called for red-flag laws, also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders,’ he said.

‘Today I’m also directing the Department of Justice to propose legislation ensuring that those who commit hate crimes and mass-murders face the death penalty, and that this capital punishment be delivered quickly, decisively and without years of needless delay.’

It was not clear on Monday whether the president was considering executive action address the problem. Multiple officials at the White House were unable to spell out or provide additional information on Trump’s proposed recommendations. 

West Virginia moderate Joe Manchin, the lead Democratic sponsor of a bipartisan background check bill, said he’d spoken to Trump today, as had his Republican co-sponsor Pat Toomey, and the president seemed open to backing their bill now.

‘This morning, we both separately discussed with President Trump our support for passing our bipartisan legislation to strengthen background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the dangerously mentally ill, and terrorists while respecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners and all Americans. The president showed a willingness to work with us on the issue of strengthening background checks,’ he said.

‘Mass shootings and violent gun crimes are tragic American problems. It is past time for Congress to take action and the Manchin-Toomey background check legislation represents an opportunity to make actual bipartisan progress to help keep Americans safe.’

Trump was under heavy pressure on Monday to condemn white nationalism unequivocally, after he claimed it wasn’t a global phenomena after a massacre in March. He was also being pressed to back bold, new measures to prevent mass murders – including a demand for immediate action from an absent Congress.

He faces an escalating crisis over the shootings, with political opponents accusing him of using the same language as Patrick Crusius, the alleged El Paso mass-murderer.

‘Let’s be very clear. You use the office of the presidency to encourage and embolden white supremacy. You use words like ‘infestation’ and ‘invasion’ to talk about human beings. We won’t truly speak with one voice against hatred until your voice is no longer in the White House,’ said former Vice President and 2020 candidate Joe Biden.

Even Anthony Scaramucci, the sitting president’s former communication director, said Trump was at risk of losing some of his key supporters. 

‘This sort of rhetoric, this sort of disunity stuff, is at risk of overpowering the policy,’ he told CNN.

Trump fanned the flames after he called for ‘strong background checks’ in the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton – that he immediately tied gun control to immigration reform, despite both suspected murderers being white Americans.

Worse, the El Paso suspect left a 2,300-word manifesto that raged about the ‘Hispanic invasion of Texas’ that appeared online minutes before the shooting began on Saturday at a Wal-Mart in the southern border city. 

The FBI is treating the shooting as a domestic terrorism attack. In Dayton, Ohio, the 24-year-old shooter, who died at the scene, was also a white man.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway urged reporters to focus on Trump’s on-camera remarks on Monday and forget the tweet that preceded his call to action. 

She also demanded that Democratic candidates using the August recess to campaign for reelection or Trump’s job return to Washington on their own accord, rather than complain from the campaign trail that the House and Senate call an emergency session.  

‘So if they want to come back – it looks like they just want to be on TV,’ she said. ‘They spent most of the weekend on TV, screaming and reaming, lying in many ways, and I thought, expressing some condolence, but also just taking pot shots at the president and some of his closest advisers … I don’t think that’s very helpful.’

She said Trump deserves credit for holding his tongue against Democrats who ‘shamelessly’ politicized the tragedies while he pushed national unity. 

‘There’s a difference between those who want to be president, and try to politicize things, and he is the president and did not respond in kind,’ she said, carefully implying who she meant, without running afoul of the law.

A non-partisan oversight body recommended that she be fired earlier in the year for attacking the president’s opponents by name, in her capacity as a White House adviser, on government property.   

Either way, Trump’s move to link background checks with immigration reform was dead on arrival, with one senior Democrat comparing the president’s rhetoric to 1930s Germany.

Trump’s early morning tweet, ahead of his expected statement at the White House, said: ‘We cannot let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain. Likewise for those so seriously wounded. We can never forget them, and those many who came before them.

‘Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!’

Trump upped the rhetoric by blaming ‘fake news’ media for nation’s ‘anger and rage,’ shrugging aside Democrats’ weekend-long criticism that his rhetoric has fueled deadly rage. 

Donald Trump called for 'strong background checks' in the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton

Donald Trump called for ‘strong background checks’ in the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton

Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler compared Trump's idea of pairing immigration reform with background checks to Nazi Germany

Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler compared Trump’s idea of pairing immigration reform with background checks to Nazi Germany

Several Democrats immediately dismissed Trump’s idea of pairing immigration reform with background checks, with a few comparing it to Nazi Germany.

‘What’s connection between background checks for guns and immigration reform? That we have to keep guns out of the hands out of the invading hordes? Of less than human people coming across our borders? That’s the implication,’ Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ on Monday morning after Trump’s tweet suggestion.

‘That’s disgusting. It reminds me of the 1930s in Germany,’ he said.

Beto O’Rourke, who is from El Paso and running for the Democratic presidential nomination, also compared the U.S. under Trump to Nazi Germany.

‘The only modern western Democracy that I can think of that said anything close to this is the Third Reich, Nazi Germany,’ he said on ‘Morning Joe.’

After Trump’s address, Joe Biden joined the fray, saying: ‘Mr. President, immigration isn’t the problem. White nationalism is the problem. America’s inaction on gun safety legislation is the problem. It’s time to put the politics aside and pass universal background checks and an assault weapons ban. Lives depend on it.’

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, whose home state of Connecticut continues to grieve the school children who were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary,  assailed Trump for a ‘transparent play to do nothing’ about gun violence.

‘Tying background checks to immigration reform is a transparent play to do nothing. There is no need to do them together. Background checks has already passed the House – w Republican votes. If Trump asked McConnell to support it, it would pass in a week. FYI – he won’t do that,’ said Murphy, who has pushed for tougher gun laws after the 2012 school shooting, in which 26 people died. 

And Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer renewed his call for the Senate to bring up background check legislation already passed by the House. 

‘Instead of flailing around blaming everything under the sun, if the president is serious about ‘strong background checks’ there’s one thing he can do: Demand Sen. McConnell put the bipartisan, House-passed universal background checks bill up for a vote,’ he tweeted. 

He reiterated the call later in a joint statement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

‘It is incumbent upon the Senate to come back into session to pass this legislation immediately,’ they said of the House bills. ‘It took less than three hours for the President to back off his call for stronger background check legislation. When he can’t mention guns while talking about gun violence, it shows the President remains prisoner to the gun lobby and the NRA.’ 

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren also told McConnell in a Monday tweet that ‘you must bring the Senate back into session to vote on this important legislation.’ She endorsed both House bills and called for new restrictions on gun makers.

‘If we want to end gun violence, we need to tackle corruption in Washington head-on. Right now the gun manufacturers—the guys who hire all the lobbyists and make all the campaign contributions—are pulling all the strings. We must fight it together,’ she tweeted.

On Sunday, several other Democrats running for president blamed Trump’s rhetoric for inflaming racial tensions around the nation. 

‘When you give a safe harbor to hate from the Oval Office, it gives license to extremism all across the country,’ Joe Biden said at a fundraiser in California. 

‘You reap what you sow, and Donald Trump has been sowing this kind of hatred in our country,’ Cory Booker said on MSNBC. 

The president ‘is encouraging this. He doesn’t tolerate it,’ O’Rourke said on CNN. 

He doubled down on calling Trump a racist in a tweet slamming the president’s call to pair background checks with immigration reform.

‘Only a racist, driven by fear, could witness what took place this weekend—and instead of standing up to hatred, side with a mass murderer’s call to make our country more white. We are so much better than this president,’ O’Rourke tweeted.  

Donald Trump’s speech after August 2019 mass-shootings in El Paso and Dayton

President Donald Trump delivered remarks on the morning of Monday, August 5, 2019, less than 48 hours after a pair of deadly mass-shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio devastated Americans:

–––

‘Good morning.

‘My fellow Americans, this morning our nation is overcome with shock, horror and sorrow. This weekend more than 80 people were killed or wounded in two evil attacks. On Saturday morning in El Paso, Texas a wicked man went to a Wal-Mart store where families were shopping with their loved ones. He shot and murdered 20 people and injured 26 others, including precious little children.

‘Then in the early hours of Sunday morning, in Dayton, Ohio, another twisted monster opened fire on a crowded downtown street. He murdered nine people including his own sister, and injured 27 others.

‘The first lady and I join all Americans in praying and grieving for the victims, their families and the survivors. We will stand by their side forever. We will never forget. These barbaric slaughters are an assault on our communities, an attack upon our nation and a crime against all humanity.

‘We are outraged and sickened by this monstrous evil, the cruelty, the hatred, the malice, the bloodshed and the terror. Our hearts are shattered for every family whose children, husbands and wives were ripped from their arms and their lives.

‘America weeps for the fallen. We are a loving nation, and our children are entitled to grow up in a just, peaceful and loving society. Together, we lock arms to shoulder the grief. We ask God in heaven to ease the anguish of those who suffer. And we vow to act with urgent resolve.

‘I want to thank the many law enforcement personnel who responded to these atrocities with the extraordinary grace and courage of American heroes. I have spoken with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, as well as Mayor Dee Margo of El Paso, Texas, and Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio, to express our profound sadness and unfailing support.

‘Today we also send the condolences of our nation to President Obrador of Mexico and all the people of Mexico for the loss of their citizens in the El Paso shooting. Terrible, terrible thing.

‘I have also been in close contact with Attorney General Barr and FBI Director Wray. Federal authorities are on the ground and I have directed them to provide any and all assistance required, whatever is needed.

‘The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online, consumed by racist hate. In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul.

‘We have asked the FBI to identify all further resources they need to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism. Whatever they need.

‘We must recognize that the Internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demented acts. We must shine light on the dark recesses of the Internet and stop mass-murders before they start.

‘The Internet, likewise, is used for human trafficking, illegal drug distribution and so many other heinous crimes. The perils of the Internet and social media cannot be ignored, and they will not be ignored.

‘In the two decades since Columbine, our nation has watched with rising horror and dread as one mass shooting has followed another, over and over again, decade after decade. We cannot allow ourselves to feel powerless. We can and will stop this evil contagion. In that task, we must honor the sacred memory of those we have lost, by acting as one people. Open wounds cannot heal if we are divided. We must seek real bipartisan solutions – we have to do that, in a bipartisan manner – that will truly make America safer and better for all.

‘First we must do a better job of identifying and acting on early warning signs. I am directing the Department of Justice to work in partnership with local, state and federal agencies, as well as social media companies, to develop tools that can detect mass-shooters before they strike.

‘As an example, the monster in the Parkland High School in Florida had many red flags against him, and yet nobody took decisive action. Nobody did anything. Why not?

‘Second, we must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly videogames that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this, and it has to begin immediately.

‘Cultural change is hard, but each of us can choose to build a culture that celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every human life. That’s what we have to do.

‘Third, we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence, and make sure those people not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement. Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.

‘Fourth, we must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms, and that if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process. That is why I have called for red-flag laws, also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders.

‘Today I’m also directing the Department of Justice to propose legislation ensuring that those who commit hate crimes and mass-murders face the death penalty, and that this capital punishment be delivered quickly, decisively and without years of needless delay.

‘These are just a few of the areas of cooperation that we can pursue. I am open and ready to listen and discuss all ideas that will actually work and make a very big difference. Republicans and Democrats have proven that we can join together in a bipartisan fashion to address this plague.

‘Last year we enacted the Stop School Violence and Fix NICS Acts into law, providing grants to improve school safety and strengthening critical background checks for firearm purchases. At my direction, the Department of Justice banned bump stocks. Last year we prosecuted a record number of firearms offenses. But there is so much more that we have to do.

‘Now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside – so destructive – and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion and love. Our future is in our control. America will rise to the challenge. We will always have, and we always will, win.

‘The choice is ours and ours alone. It is not up to mentally ill monsters. It is up to us. If we are able to pass great legislation after all of these years, we will ensure that those who were attacked will not have died in vain.

‘May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo. May God protect them. May God protect all of those from Texas to Ohio. May God bless the victims and their families. May God bless America.

‘Thank you very much. Thank you.’

Meanwhile, Trump did not offer details on what he meant by ‘strong background checks’ online or in his remarks.

House Democrats passed two pieces of legislation in February to address the mass shootings. One required background checks for all firearms sales, including those purchased online and at gun shows, and the other extended the background check review period to 10 days from three days.

Trump had vowed to veto both measures.

‘By overly extending the minimum time that a licensed entity is required to wait for background check results, H.R. 1112 would unduly impose burdensome delays on individuals seeking to purchase a firearm. For this reason, the Administration opposes the legislation,’ the administration said in a statement.  

The White House has taken some action. After a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people, the Trump administration banned the rapid-fire devices known as bump stocks. 

Trump on Sunday said he’d taken a ‘lot of’ steps to stop gun violence while acknowledging that ‘perhaps more has to be done.’ 

Democrats, meanwhile, have called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to cancel the chamber’s August recess and return lawmakers to Washington D.C. to pass H.R.8 or the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which would require a background check on all gun sales.

Thus far, the Republican-controlled Senate has refused to bring up the measure. McConnell, who fractured his shoulder in a fall on Sunday, is unlikely to bring the chamber back. 

Trump has expressed support for stronger background checks before.  

In February 2018, after the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17, the White House said ‘the president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system.’ 

The president also, at the time, briefly supported a plan to raise the age to purchase a gun but then changed his mind.  He also expressed interest in bipartisan legislation from Democratic Manchin and Toomey that would expand background checks to private and online sales but the White House ultimately did not come out and support the measure. 

It’s also clear what kind of immigration reform Trump would want to match up with his call for stronger background checks. In the past, the president has pushed for funding for his border wall as part of such reform, which would be a non-starter with Democrats. 

In December and January the government experienced its longest shutdown in history when House Democrats refused to fund Trump’s border wall. The president eventually folded on the issue.   

In both the shootings in Ohio – where nine died – and Texas – where at least 22 died – the guns were purchased legally, law-enforcement officials said. 

President Donald Trump, with first lady Melania Trump, walks to Air Force One for the flight back to Washington after a weekend in New Jersey

President Donald Trump, with first lady Melania Trump, walks to Air Force One for the flight back to Washington after a weekend in New Jersey

Patrick Crusius

Connor Betts

Patrick Crusius, 21, (left) is the suspect in the El Paso shooting while Connor Betts, 24, (right) is the suspect in the Dayton shooting

Trump, in his first televised comments on the shootings on Sunday, said ‘more has to be done’ to prevent mass shootings.

He pledged to take action, saying, ‘Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of it.’ 

‘We have done much more than most administrations,’ Trump said in Morristown, N.J. ‘But we’ve done, actually, a lot, but perhaps more has to be done.’

Trump said he has been speaking with Attorney General William Barr Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, as well as lawmakers and local leaders.

He indicated his administration is considering additional action, potentially aimed at addressing the problem of mental illness.

‘We have to get it stopped. This has been going on for years,’ Trump said alongside first lady Melania Trump. ‘So thank you very much, and I will be making a statement tomorrow at about 10:00, and I’ll see you there.’ 

He also brought up mental illness, saying the shooters, both white men in their early 20s, were deranged.

‘But this is also a mental illness problem. If you look at both of these cases, this is mental illness. These are really people that are very, very seriously mentally ill,’ he stated. 

Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, on Sunday morning called them ‘sick’ killers, as he pushed back on claims that Trump inspired a racist manifesto that appeared online after the alleged El Paso shooter’s bloody rampage.

‘I blame the people who pulled the trigger,’ Mulvaney declared on ‘Meet the Press’ hours after a second gunman opened fire in Ohio. ‘Goodness gracious, is someone really blaming the President? These people are sick.’ 

In a manifesto, the 21-year-old white male suspected in the El Paso shooting wrote ‘this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.’

Trump often calls immigrants trying to cross the border an ‘invasion’ and has referred to them as an ‘infestation.’

 

Democrats vying for Trump’s job flocked  to Sunday morning news programs – and social media – to decry white nationalism. They were also linking the problem to Trump, who one presidential contender said ‘encourages the kind of violence that we’re seeing’ with his border policies and conduct.

‘The Commander in Chief is sending a very public signal to the rest of this country about what is permissible, and in fact even what he encourages to happen,’ O’Rourke said on CNN of the shootings. ‘So let’s connect the dots here on what is happening, and why it is happening, and who is responsible for this right now.’ 

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg agreed. ‘I mean at best he’s condoning and encouraging white nationalism,’ he said on CNN of Trump. 

Booker was more direct, claiming that Trump is responsible for the shootings that cumulatively resulted in 29 deaths this weekend.

‘I turned my attention to the person who is leading this country, who is, in my opinion, in this moral moment, who is failing. That at the end of the day, especially since this was a white supremacist manifesto, that I want to say with more moral clarity that Donald Trump is responsible for this,’ Booker said Sunday on NBC.

Jerrold Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, also said Trump’s ‘racist rhetoric’ inspires deadly attacks.

‘I am anguished over reports that the shooting suspect in El Paso posted a manifesto that included rants about a ‘Hispanic invasion’ before the attack,’ Nadler said in a statement Sunday. ‘This manifesto appears to echo the same anti-immigrant sentiment that permeates the language espoused by President Trump.’ 

Nadler conceded that the shooters bore sole responsibility for their actions but said Trump was not blameless. 

‘Ultimately it is the perpetrators who bear responsibility for their heinous acts of domestic terrorism, but President Trump’s racist rhetoric has stoked the flames of hate and white supremacy, and increased the likelihood that people will commit mass murder based on these evil notions,’ he continued, calling on Trump to ‘stop his racist rhetoric that has the effect of encouraging mass murder.’ 

Trump had sent his prayers to residents of El Paso and Dayton on Sunday morning, after both cities were wounded by gun violence over the weekend, but he had not spoken camera, despite finding time to attend a wedding Saturday evening at his New Jersey golf property.

‘God bless the people of El Paso Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio,’ Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

He also ordered flags to be lowed to half-staff at federal government buildings and the White House.

‘Melania and I are praying for all those impacted by this unspeakable act of evil!’ the president said.

The White House said in statements that Trump was being updated on the shootings, and the president lauded the response of state law enforcement in Texas and Ohio.

‘The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be learned in El Paso. Law enforcement was very rapid in both instances,’ he said. 

He on Saturday night condemned the El Paso shooter, claiming the 21-year-old was a hate-filled coward.

‘Today’s shooting in El Paso, Texas, was not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice,’ he posted. ‘I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people. Melania and I send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the great people of Texas.’ 

Fellow Democratic primary candidate Pete Buttigieg also said Trump is a white nationalist, claiming that 'at best' the president is 'condoning and encouraging white nationalism'

Fellow Democratic primary candidate Pete Buttigieg also said Trump is a white nationalist, claiming that ‘at best’ the president is ‘condoning and encouraging white nationalism’

Cory Booker claimed that Trump is responsible for the shootings that cumulatively resulted in 29 deaths this weekend

Cory Booker claimed that Trump is responsible for the shootings that cumulatively resulted in 29 deaths this weekend

Both alleged shooters this weekend where white men. There are reports that the gunman identified as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius in El Paso told police when he was taken into custody that he was motivated because he wanted to kill as many Mexicans as possible

Both alleged shooters this weekend where white men. There are reports that the gunman identified as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius in El Paso told police when he was taken into custody that he was motivated because he wanted to kill as many Mexicans as possible

The second shooter acted about 12 hours later, targeting a street where people go out drinking in Dayton, Ohio. The 24-year-old shooting suspect killed nine people and was shot dead by police

The second shooter acted about 12 hours later, targeting a street where people go out drinking in Dayton, Ohio. The 24-year-old shooting suspect killed nine people and was shot dead by police

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