Trump tours massacre cities, denies fueling hate
President Trump rejected accusations that his rhetoric encourages white nationalist violence Wednesday, but vowed to push for tougher background checks for gunbuyers as he prepared to make a divisive trip to the cities where two gunmen killed at least 31 people.
“I am concerned about the rise of any group of hate. I don’t like it. Any group of hate, whether it’s white supremacy [or] any other kind of supremacy,” Trump told reporters .
Trump said he would push Republican and Democratic leaders to pass enhanced background checks, and suggested he is particularly concerned about mentally ill people buying guns.
But the president said he does not plan to seek a renewed ban on assault weapons, like the ones used in the Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Tex. massacres, suggesting he was bowing to conservative Republican opposition to the measure.
“There is no political ap- petite for it,” Trump said.
Trump was greeted by relatively small protests as he arrived in Dayton, where a gunman killed nine people outside a bar before being killed by police early Sunday.
More demonstrations were expected later in El Paso, where many blame his incendiary rhetoric for stoking a climate of hatred. A gunman who raged against Latino migrants killed 22 people at a Walmart store in the border city on Saturday.
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat, has criticized Trump but, nonetheless, welcomed the president — along with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — when he landed at the city’s airport.
El Paso’s Republican Mayor Dee Margo said Trump is welcome, but other community leaders say Trump should stay away to respect the majority Latino city.
The El Paso shooter echoed many of Trump’s own racist and anti-immigrant themes including Trump’s description of immigrants as “invaders.” The president laughed and appeared to agree when a supporter shouted “shoot them” during his diatribe against immigrants at a rally in May.
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, an El Paso native, warned Trump to stay away and blamed the bloodshed on “your racism.” That prompted Trump to denounce O’Rourke on the eve of a trip that he billed as a step towards unifying a nation he has divided with his own policies and rhetoric.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged Trump to push Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow a vote on a bill mandating tougher background checks for buyers.
“As our nation mourns the loss of life from the gun violence of the past week, House Democrats are moving prayerfully and purposefully to advance action,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues.