Trump blasts critics en route to El Paso
Aiming to EL PASO, TEXAS — play the traditional role of healer during national tragedy, President Donald Trump paid visits Wednesday to two cities reeling from mass shootings that left 31 dead and dozens more wounded. He was greeted in both locations with protesters and well-wishers.
The president and first lady Melania Trump flew to El Paso late in the day after visiting the Dayton hospital where many of the victims of Sunday’s attack in that city were treated. The president was kept out of view of the reporters traveling with him, but White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said the couple met with hospital staff and first responders and spent time with wounded survivors and their families.
Trump told them he was “with them,” she said. “Everybody received him very warmly. Everybody was very, very excited to see him.”
Trump spent part of his flight between Ohio and Texas on Twitter criticizing Democratic lawmakers, a potential 2020 rival and the press.
Trump and the White House have disputed the idea that he bears some responsibility for the nation’s divisions.
In El Paso, Raul Melendez, whose father-in-law, David Johnson, was killed in Saturday’s shooting, said the most appropriate thing Trump could do was to meet with relatives of the victims.
“It shows that he actually cares, if he talks to individual families,” said Melendez, who credits Johnson with helping his 9-year-old daughter survive the attack by pushing her under a counter. Melendez, an Army veteran and the son of Mexican immigrants, said he holds only the shooter responsible for the attack.
“That person had the intent to hurt people, he already had it,” he said. “No one’s words would have triggered that.”
Rep. Veronica Escobar, the Democratic congresswoman who represents the city of El Paso, declined to meet with Trump. “I refuse to be a prop,” she said in an interview on CNN.
Visits to the sites of mass shootings have become a regular pilgrimage for recent presidents, but Trump, who has sometimes struggled to project empathy during moments of national tragedy, has stirred unusual backlash.
On the eve of his trip, Trump was criticizing a potential 2020 rival, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who had tweeted that Trump “helped create the hatred that made Saturday’s tragedy possible” and “should not come to El Paso.”
O’Rourke “should respect the victims & law enforcement - & be quiet!” Trump snapped back.
And on his flight between one scene of one tragedy and the second, Trump said he tuned in as another 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, excoriated him in a speech that slammed him as incapable of offering the moral leadership that has defined the presidency for generations and “fueling a literal carnage” in America.
Trump declared the speech “Sooo Boring!” and warned that, “The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks” if Biden wins.
As Trump was on his way to El Paso, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued his first calls for action, including cracking down on internet sites used by violent extremists and confronting racism. But the Republican didn’t suggest any gun-control measures.
Abbott says the state must keep weapons away from “deranged killers” but didn’t offer specifics. He also told reporters the information he’s received suggests there were “no red flags” with the suspected El Paso gunman.