EL PASO DEATH TOLL RISES; TRUMP DENOUNCES RACISM
President condemns bigotry but quiet on changing gun laws
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump forcefully denounced white supremacy in the wake of twin mass shootings over the weekend, citing the threat of “racist hate” with no acknowledgment that his own anti-immigrant rhetoric has become part of a national debate.
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” Trump said at the White House. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated.”
But he stopped well short of endorsing the kind of broad gun control measures that activists and Democrats have sought for years, instead falling back on longtime Republican remedies, such as stronger action to address mental illness, violence in the media and violent video games.
He warned of “the perils of the internet and social media,” but offered no recognition of his own use of those platforms to promote his brand of divisive politics.
It seemed unlikely that Trump’s 10-minute remarks, coming after one of the most violent weekends in recent Ameri
can history, would reposition him as a unifier when many Americans hold him responsible for inflaming racial division. He took no responsibility for the atmosphere of division, nor did he recognize his own reluctance to warn of the rise of white nationalism until now.
Speaking at a lectern beneath a portrait of George Washington in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room, Trump read from a prepared script on a teleprompter as he denounced the bilious anti-Hispanic online manifesto of a shooter in El Paso who killed 22 people Saturday as part of an “evil contagion” spreading online.
“These barbaric slaughters are an assault upon our communities, an attack upon our nation and a crime against all of humanity,” Trump said of the massacre in El Paso and another in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday — at one point incorrectly referring to Toledo as the site of those killings. The Dayton shooter is not known to have had a political motive.
Between the two massacres, 31 people have now died. Trump plans to visit El Paso and Dayton on Wednesday.
Trump took no questions, and did not repeat his call on Twitter earlier in the morning for Republicans and Democrats to work together to strengthen background checks for prospective gun buyers.
That outraged Democratic leaders in Congress, who quickly accused Trump of retreating from more substantive action on gun control under political pressure.
“It took less than three hours for the president to back off his call for stronger background check legislation,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, said in a statement. House Democrats passed such a measure in February, but the Republican-controlled Senate has not acted on it.
Trump’s first comments, made in a pair of morning Twitter posts, set some gun control advocates up for disappointment.
“We cannot let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain,” he wrote. “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!”
In his somber remarks, Trump repeated his past endorsement of so-called red flag laws that would allow for the confiscation of firearms from people found to be mentally ill and said mental health laws should be changed to allow for the involuntary confinement of people at risk of committing violence. He gave no indication of how he would pursue any of his goals.
It was not immediately clear what other gun control proposals Trump was referring to on Twitter. The House passed back-toback bills on firearms soon after it Democrats took control, voting in February to require background checks for all gun purchasers, including those at gun shows and on the internet, and to extend waiting periods for would-be gun purchasers flagged by the existing instant-check system. The Republican-controlled Senate has not acted on either measure.
Instead of focusing on measures to limit the sale of firearms, Trump ticked through a list of proposals that Republicans have long endorsed as alternatives. They include unspecified action to address “gruesome and grisly video games” and “a culture that celebrates violence.”
“Let’s be clear: This is not about mental health, it’s not about video games, it’s not about movies. Those are all NRA talking points. This is about easy access to guns.”
John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety
Trump also warned that the internet and social media provide “a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demented acts.” But the president has himself amplified rightwing voices online with histories of racism and bigotry. Shortly before the shooting began in El Paso on Saturday, Trump retweeted Katie Hopkins, a rightwing British political commentator who has said Islam “disgusts” her and urged her fellow citizens to “arm ourselves” to “fight back” against foreign infiltration.
Trump also emphasized steps to better identify and respond to signs of mental illness that could lead to violence, repeating a familiar conservative formulation that de-emphasizes the significance of widely available firearms.
“Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun,” Trump said. Calling mass shooters “mentally ill monsters,” he also said he was directing the Department of Justice to propose legislation calling for the death penalty for “those who commit hate crimes and mass murders.”
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., praised what he called a shift in tone for the president. On a conference call with reporters, Toomey said he had spoken Monday morning to Trump and that the president also expressed “a very constructive willingness to engage on” the issue of expanded background checks, long championed by the senator.
Gun control groups reacted sharply to Trump’s address.
“Let’s be clear: This is not about mental health, it’s not about video games, it’s not about movies. Those are all NRA talking points. This is about easy access to guns,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group.
In Texas, law enforcement officials arrested Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, which is about a 10-hour drive from the Walmart in El Paso where he opened fire Saturday. In the manifesto, Crusius said he supported mass shootings in two New Zealand mosques.
The gunman in Dayton, Connor Betts, 24, fired on popular nightlife spot with a high-capacity magazine that can hold 100 rounds of ammunition. Nine people were killed, including Betts’ sister.
Some of the Democrats campaigning for their party’s presidential nomination condemned Trump for not calling the El Paso attack a white supremacist act of domestic terrorism and blamed the White House for fueling white nationalist sentiment.
No federal agency is responsible for designating domestic terrorism organizations, as it has for international terrorism. Similarly, there is no criminal charge of domestic terrorism, and suspects who are by definition considered domestic terrorists are charged under other laws, such as hate crime, gun and conspiracy statutes.
According to FBI statistics, there have been eight mass shootings in the United States since 2017 in which the shooters espoused white supremacist views.