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COMMUNITIES IN TEXAS and Ohio continued to reel from the weekend’s mass shootings today, with locals in El Paso urging the US President to stay away ahead of a planned visit tomorrow.
Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to the Texan border city where 22 died in the Walmart massacre, before heading around 2,400 kilometres northeast to Dayton, Ohio where a second gunman shot nine dead hours later.
In Ohio today, its Republican governor broke with party lines to urge the passing of laws requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats.
The president called on Americans in a nationwide address yesterday to condemn bigotry but community leaders say his words rang hollow set against a longstanding refusal to call out white supremacy. Critics also decried his history of provocative tweets widely condemned as racist.
“This president, who helped create the hatred that made Saturday’s tragedy possible, should not come to El Paso,” tweeted Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic presidential hopeful and former congressman who grew up in the city.
“We do not need more division. We need to heal. He has no place here.”
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley meanwhile said she would meet Trump and tell him “how unhelpful he’s being. His comments weren’t helpful on guns.”
‘He has no right’
Residents in El Paso, unimpressed by Trump’s tightly scripted appeal for unity, told AFP they were fearful of a rise in white nationalism and said the president was part of the problem.
“I do blame our president. Since the moment he got into office the rhetoric, the hate that he’s got towards people that are just different colour skin, he has no right,” said Silvia Rios.
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, whose district includes the area targeted by the El Paso gunman, urged Trump “to consider the fact that his words and his actions have played a role in this”.
“From my perspective, he is not welcome here,” Escobar told MSNBC. “He should not come here while we are in mourning.”
El Paso mayor Dee Margo, announcing the visit, stressed that he was welcoming the president because it was his duty to do so.
Presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway accused Democrats of politicising a moment of acute pain while Trump was trying to “bring the country together, heal a nation”.
She was backed by the chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, Adolpho Telles, who defended Trump’s visit but told CNN he needs to be more careful about his language.
Gun laws
Ohio governor Mike DeWine today urged the passing of stricter gun laws ahead of the president’s visit tomorrow.
“We can come together to do these things to save lives,” DeWine said.
The measures include background checks for most firearm purchases and harsher penalties for convicted criminals with gun convictions.
DeWine said he heard a crowd of mourners urging him to “do something” at an event on Sunday night.
“Some chanted ‘do something’ and they were absolutely right,” he said.
With reporting from AP
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Wait a sec. That’s a thing? You can just tell Trumpy to stay away? Maybe if everybody tried he’d go back where he came from?
@GrahamMManning: sometimes I struggle with you….but on this i stand United
@LittleBee: ah shur isn’t the struggle half the fun?
@GrahamMManning: wow there’s two things we agree on in one thread. Aren’t we great lol
I spent some time in Texas in January 2018 and even then there were rumours that the staunchly republican Texas might turn blue. This is making me think even Texas might vote democrat after Trumps version of America
@Liam McDonald: Unprecedented.
@Liam McDonald: Joe Biden is actually beating Trump in Texas, in multiple opinion polls. The only Democrat to do so. I agree, there could be a groundbreaking shift in the Lone Star State next year. Look how close Beto pushed Ted Cruz last year. He got 48% of the vote in Texas.
@Karllye kripton: insightful
@Philip Farrell: where have we heard before so and so was beating Trump?
@Philip Farrell: the Dems have done a good job of stuffing the ballot box with mass migration from down yonder, as have all the border states and most especially California…
No Old El Paso night for Trump so
What is he going to do there anyway. If you’re not part of the solution….
@aidan mccormack: send thoughts and prayers of course??? What else can he do.
@aidan mccormack: he has coupons for a tanning salon
Does everyone not realise that Congress write the laws. What are the democrats doing to stop gun violence?
@Mumpsimus: they have to go before the senate for a vote after congress passes it. Mitch McConnell rejects them before they even go for a vote. Tbf democrats are a lot better than republicans with gun laws. It’d be impossible to be worse!
@Mumpsimus: are you serious?
@Mumpsimus: One of Trumps first executive orders was to water down Obamas gun control laws, making easy for mentally deranged people to buy guns… The Republicans held both houses for most of Obamas 2 terms… Blocking all but the smallest concessions after multiple mass shootings.
@Mumpsimus: there are 3 gun control bills sitting on Republican senate leader Mitch McConnells desk and he is refusing to bring them to the floor for a vote.
@Mumpsimus: you’ve really learned a lot from this thread, I hope.
@Mumpsimus: they’re good at lip service and little else!
Trump must have some superpower to be able to start mass shootings. Because they never happened before. Not under Obama or bush or Clinton. It’s not politics it’s something else…. The first thing a killer thinks is ‘TO KILL’ the second thing is ‘HOW’… Gun, knife, car, truck, bomb, fists. It doesn’t matter how. The question is why! But now there is a president that is not popular let’s blame him.
@james s: You lack the ability of critical thinking.
@Yzo Sirrius: explain how I’m wrong, educate me.
@james s: Trumpy is a lying, bile spewing racist. His constant stream of vitriolic mumblings contribute to an atmosphere where certain nut-jobs believe their evil views are acceptable and a tiny percentage of em act on them in the worst way imaginable. Trumpy doesn’t pull the trigger but he’s made those triggers easier for people to put their hands on and fostered an atmosphere where those who do pull said triggers feel more emboldened to do so. Also obviously he’s a pretendy republican, a party owned by the NRA, and everyone who runs/votes for them has blood on their hands.
@james s: He can’t because he knows your right.
@GrahamMManning: you lost me with bile spewing racist. Please provide facts to support your statement
@Mumpsimus: get lost easily? Should maybe get one of those harness thingys attached and not go out alone? Just thinking of your safety. Briefly. He lies on a more than daily basis (56 times last week alone). He was a proponent of birtherism (racist), “go back to where they came from” to four women of colour politicians (racist and sexist), a judge can’t do his job cos he’s of Mexican heritage (racist), “good people on both sides” equating those protesting against white supremacists with actual white supremacists (white supremacist friendly at the very least). He’s far more of a self serving opportunist than a racist but he’s still both. Probably lost ya at “lost” huh? I’m telling ya that harness will work wonders.
The only one with Mental health problems is Trump himself
I wonder if he will mention invasion or call all Mexicans criminals as he has multiple times in the past
Will he listen, of course not.
Was he intending to show up ? No
@Paul O’Sullivan: Yeah, but it’ll be a closed shop gig in front “first responders” (cops).
It looking good for him now but he will pull something out
@John Murt: it’s not looking good for him…
DEFAULTER. BIGOT. CRIMINAL. MURDERER
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