Trump says ‘hate has no place in our country' after mass shootings
US President Donald Trump has declared that “hate has no place in our country” following two mass shootings over the weekend that left thirty people dead.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said, “Hate has no place in our country, and we're going to take care of it.”
He also said that his administraiton has “done much more than most administrations” in addressing the issue of gun violence, but conceded that “perhaps more has to be done.”
Early on Sunday morning, a man opened fire at an arts and entertainment district in downtown Dayton, Ohio, killing 9 people and injuring 16 others. The suspect was later shot dead by police.
A day earlier, another shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, left 20 people dead and 26 injured. The gunman, who was arrested, is white and linked to a "manifesto" posted online that described an attack in response to a “Hispanic invasion.”
“Hispanics will take control of the local and state government of my beloved Texas, changing policy to better suit their needs,” the manifesto said, adding, “the heavy Hispanic population in Texas will make us a Democrat stronghold.”
US authorities have been investigating the Walmart incident as a case of domestic terrorism.
Trump said Sunday that “a mental illness problem” was the motive behind the shootings, declining to answer questions about whether the El Paso shooter’s anti-immigrant manifesto shared similarities with his rhetoric against migrants.
Meanwhile, several Democratic presidential candidates for the 2020 election have accused Trump of creating racial divisions.
“Donald Trump is responsible for this. He is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotry,” US Senator Cory Booker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Also, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said he believed that Trump was a white nationalist.
“He is an open avowed racist and is encouraging more racism in this country,” O’Rourke said on CNN.
US Senator Bernie Sanders also called Trump a white nationalist, saying on CNN, “All of the evidence out there suggests that we have a president who is a racist, who is a xenophobe who appeals, and is trying to appeal, to white nationalism.”
In addition, Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted that “we need to call out the president himself for advancing racism and white supremacy.”
The two shootings came in the same week when two employees were fatally shot at another Walmart store in Southaven, Mississippi, and three people were shot and killed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California.
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