Trump offers condolences after mass shootings; Dems critical
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered flags flown at half-staff Sunday and offered his “condolences to all” after two mass shootings, in Texas and Ohio, prompted criticism that his administration has done little to stem gun violence and that his racially divisive rhetoric is fanning white nationalism and hate crimes.
“Hate has no place in this country,” Trump told reporters while traveling from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course back to the White House where he said he would make a full address Monday.
Trump’s comments came late in the day and followed angry comments in El Paso where 20 people were killed by a white nationalist who left a manifesto decrying the invasion of Hispanics in the United States.
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso, called the president a white nationalist in a television interview and blamed the president’s rhetoric for stoking violence against minorities.
Another Democrat from Texas seeking the presidency, former Housing Secretary Julian Castro of San Antonio, said Trump has fanned “the flames of bigotry and white supremacy” with campaign rhetoric that described Mexican immigrants as “rapists and criminals.”
Other Democratic lawmakers urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to call the Senate back in session from its August recess and pass a House-approved gun background check bill.
Police in El Paso and Dayton, where a second mass shooting occurred just 13 hours after the Texas tragedy, said the weapons used in the shootings were legally purchased and that neither gunman would have been prohibited from buying a weapon.
Both gunmen used semi-automatic assualt rifles, like those that were found in the room of the Oct. 1, 2017, shooter in Las Vegas who killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.
Trump said he has talked with Attorney General William Barr and the governors of both states where the shootings occurred. He also said that mental illness contributes to the tragedies of mass shootings.
“We have to get it stopped. This has been going on for years and years in this country,” Trump said.
Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.