US mass shootings: Donald Trump insists 'hate has no place' in America amid backlash over bloodshed

David Gardner5 August 2019

Donald Trump has claimed “hate has no place” in America after 29 people were killed in two mass shootings that sparked a major backlash over his presidency.

Speaking for the first time since the attacks, Mr Trump conceded that “perhaps more has to be done” to stop the bloodshed.

But critics complained that the president’s “racist” stance on immigration and his avowed opposition to gun control have fanned the flames of violence in the United States.

Alleged gunman Patrick Crusius, 21, reportedly targeted immigrants in a gun rampage through a Walmart superstore in the Texas border city of El Paso that claimed 20 lives and left another 27 wounded on Saturday

Donald Trump is joined by Melania as he speaks to reporters
Reuters

The white suspect was said by police to have posted a manifesto online that spoke of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas”.

In an unrelated shooting spree in Dayton, Ohio, in the early hours of yesterday morning, Connor Betts, 24, opened fire in a busy nightlife district, killing another nine victims, including his own sister.

Although the motive for the second attack was unclear, police said there was no evidence of any race bias.

Dayton Ohio shooting: In Pictures

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“This has been going on for years, for years and years in our country and we have to get it stopped,” said Mr Trump, who promised to take action, adding that “a lot of things are in the works”.

Both gunmen, he said, were “very serious mentally ill”.

But Democrats were quick to condemn the president’s policies and his anti-immigration rhetoric for inciting racial divisions in the US.

El Paso shooting - in pictures

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Singers John Legend and Rihanna also blamed the president for the tragedies.

“The President regularly inspires killers. He is part of the problem,” Legend tweeted.

“When we condemn the racist venom coming from the President’s mouth and point out the bigotry of his policies, it’s not an academic question, it’s not a political game, it’s about life and death,” he added.

“Imagine a world where they build a wall to keep terrorists IN AMERICA!!!” tweeted Rihanna, referring to Mr Trump’s plans to build a wall along America’s border with Mexico.

Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, accused the president of encouraging the “open racism and intolerance and hatred” behind the attacks.

“I’m saying that President Trump has a lot to do with what happened in El Paso yesterday,” he added.

The El Paso gunman, identified as Patrick Crusius, is seen on CCTV
AFP/Getty Images

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said that Mr Trump “is responsible” for the shootings.

Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, insisted it was wrong to hold Mr Trump in any way to account for the killings, claiming it was a “social issue”.

“I don’t think it’s at all fair to sit here and say that he doesn’t think that white nationalism is bad for the nation,” he said on ABC.

The Texas massacre happened in a city where the majority of people are of Hispanic descent and at least six Mexican nationals were among the dead.

The El Paso Walmart store was crowded with shoppers buying back-to-school supplies on Saturday when the gunman struck.

Security cameras showed the shooter, wearing glasses and ear protectors, stalking the store with an assault rifle.

The suspect reportedly posted a four-page, 2,400-word manifesto of hate on a far right message board about 20 minutes before the shooting began. It described a “cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion”.

When he was taken into custody, Crusius allegedly told police he wanted to kill as many Mexicans as possible. He has been charged with capital murder, which carries the death penalty in Texas.

The El Paso victims included parents Jordan Anchondo, 24 and her husband Andre, 23, who died shielding their child from the gunfire.

Their two-month-old baby escaped with two broken fingers. The injury is thought to have happened when his mother’s body fell on him.

US Army veteran Arturo Benavides, 60, was killed as he stood paying for his groceries at the cash register. Mother-of-eight Angelina Enlisbee, 86, was also in one of the checkout lines when she was shot and killed.

Elsa Mendoza de la Mora was reportedly shot when she left her husband to wait in the car while she went into Walmart to pick up some items.

Leonardo Campos, Gloria Marquez and Javier Rodriguez, 15, are also believed to have died in the shooting.

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