Angry voices greet Trump on visit to El Paso
EL PASO, Texas — Aiming to play the traditional role of healer during national tragedy, President Donald Trump flew Wednesday to cities reeling from mass shootings that left 31 dead and dozens more wounded. But his divisive words preceded him, large protests greeted him and biting political attacks soon followed.
The president and first lady Melania Trump flew to El Paso after visiting the Dayton hospital where many of the victims of Sunday’s attack in that city were treated. For most of the day, the president and the reporters traveling with him were separate.
“Everybody received him very warmly,” press secretary Stephanie Grisham said of the Dayton visit. “Everybody was very, very excited to see him.” Trump said the same about his reception when he spoke at a 911 call center in El Paso.
Also in El Paso, former Rep. Beto O’rourke spoke to several hundred people at a separate gathering. O’rourke, a potential Democratic 2020 presidential rival, has blistered Trump as a racist instigator, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump speak to first responders Wednesday as they visit an El Paso 911 call center after meeting with people affected by Saturday’s mass shooting in the West Texas border city.
but he also told his audience that the open way the people of his hometown treat each other could be “the example to the United States of America.”
Emotions are still raw in both cities after the weekend shootings, and the vitriol continued Wednesday.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, the Democratic congresswoman
who represents El Paso, declined to meet with Trump. “I refuse to be a prop,” she said on CNN. And Trump’s motorcade passed El Paso protesters holding “Racist Go Home” signs.
Though Trump has been able to summon soothing words and connect with victims at the site of tragedies,
he often quickly lapses into divisive statements. On the eve of his trip, Trump lashed out at O’rourke on Twitter, saying he “should respect the victims & law enforcement — & be quiet!”
And Trump spent part of his flight between Ohio and Texas airing his grievances on Twitter, berating Democratic lawmakers, O’rourke and the press.
When a reporter asked what he saw during the day, he answered that he was received respectfully in both cities. Then on the flight home he unleashed another political tweet: “The Dems new weapon is actually their old weapon, one which they never cease to use when they are down, or run out of facts, RACISM! They are truly disgusting!”
Trump and the White House have rejected the idea that he bears any responsibility for the nation’s divisions.
Raul Melendez, whose father-in-law, David Johnson, was killed in the El Paso shooting, said Trump most needed 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.”