USA TODAY International Edition
‘Hate has no place’
Trump offers call to action but few specifics on policy
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump condemned white supremacy Monday and vowed that the nation would respond with “urgent resolve” to a weekend of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
In remarks at the White House, Trump offered few specifics on legislative and policy steps he would pursue.
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated,” Trump said. “Hate has no place in America.”
Trump has faced a barrage of criticism for divisive tweets and statements aimed at black Democratic lawmakers and the majority-black city of Baltimore, which he described as “rodent infested.” Since the early days of his campaign, Trump has used words such as “invasion” to describe immigration.
The president faced pressure throughout much of his first years in office to condemn white nationalism, which has been on the rise. In 2017, Trump was widely criticized for saying there were “fine people on both sides” of
a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that broke out in fatal violence.
Trump indicated that his administration’s response to the shootings would focus more on mental health and cultural issues than on gun control.
“Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger,” Trump said, “not the gun.”
Democrats said Trump didn’t go nearly far enough in his remarks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer accused Trump of being a “prisoner to the gun lobby and the NRA.
Democratic congressional leaders criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for not taking up background check legislation approved by the House in February.
In tweets after the shootings, McConnell called the events “sickening” and said “the entire nation is horrified.” But he showed no sign of heeding Democratic calls to bring senators back from summer recess to address gun violence.
“If we have anything to add to the statements the leader issued this weekend, we will be sure to forward them along,” David Popp, McConnell’s spokesman, replied when asked if the Kentucky Republican planned to summon the Senate back.
The two men who led the nation’s investigation into the 9/11 attacks said Monday that a similar examination of domestic terrorism is needed.
Tom Kean, the former Republican New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said the political establishment appears at a loss on how to respond to repeated spasms of gun violence that have cut a bloody swath through an increasing number of American communities.
Kean and Hamilton, whose 9/11 inquiry resulted in an overhaul of the U.S. intelligence system and new information sharing systems across the government, said in interviews with USA TODAY that a similar examination of domestic extremism would require a bipartisan commitment that would probably be difficult during a time of such political discord.
“This is such a desperate problem that something like a commission could work, but you would have to have a total commitment,” Kean said. “It just seems like the country doesn’t know what to do.”
Thirty-one people were killed in the shootings over the weekend – 22 in El Paso and nine in Dayton.
Monday morning, Trump tweeted a suggestion that Congress link immigration laws to new legislation requiring stronger background checks for gun buyers. “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform,” Trump tweeted. He didn’t elaborate in his remarks at the White House.