Trump news: President fails to propose gun law change after mass shootings, as Obama warns leaders are feeding 'climate of fear'
Two mass shootings left nearly 30 victims dead over the weekend
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Donald Trump referred to the shooting suspects in the El Paso and Dayton gun massacres as “mentally ill monsters”, before naming the wrong US city in Ohio.
The president blamed everything from the press to violent video games while addressing the nation after two gun attacks left nearly 30 victims dead over the weekend.
During the controversial speech on Monday, he called on the US to reject “racism” and “white supremacy,” while failing to address his own incendiary remarks launched against immigrants and his apparent opponents of colour, including Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Elijah Cummings.
Former president Barack Obama denounced the divisive language coming from “American leaders” in a statement posted to his Twitter account. In his first response to the Texas and Ohio shootings, Mr Obama says Americans must “soundly reject language” from any leader who “feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.”
A shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday killed 22 people, and a second attack outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday killed nine people. Investigators say the suspect in the El Paso massacre posted a racist, anti-immigrant message shortly before the attack.
The statement made by Barack Obama said: “Until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.”
In his address to the nation, Donald Trump said America “must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” adding that the FBI would investigate “hate crimes and domestic terrorism.”
Pressure is meanwhile mounting on Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to recall the upper chamber of Congress from its summer recess to finally vote on a universal background checks bill that was passed by the House of Representatives in February.
US stocks plunged to their worst loss of the year Monday, as investors’ fears over Donald Trump’s trade war impact the market.
Catch-up on events as they happened
Donald Trump laughed and joked after a supporter suggested shooting Mexicanmigrants at a rally in May 2019.
The clip of the interaction is once again spreading across social media, as the US reels from the El Paso massacre.
“When you have 15,000 people marching up, and you have hundreds and hundreds of [immigrants], and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great – and don’t forget we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons,” Mr Trump said, to an audience of thousands in Florida.
Here's The Independent's Andrew Griffin with a story on Donald Trump blaming the series of deadly mass shootings on violent video games -
Donald Trump also managed to blame the press for the spate of mass shooting in a series of controversial tweets earlier this morning. Here's our story:
The Mexican government has dubbed the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, over the weekend an "act of terrorism" against Mexicans, while the president of that nation expressed hope that the US will act swiftly to change its gun laws.
The shooting, on Saturday, has left at least 22 people dead, after a gunman opened fire in a Walmart just miles from the US-Mexico border.
"There could be a change to their laws because it is stunning what is happening, unfortunate, and very powerful," Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president, said on Monday. "I don't rule out that they could change their constitution and laws. These are new times; you have to always be adjusting the legal framework to the new reality."
As many have noted online, the president has repeatedly forgotten the name of US towns and cities he was focusing on in the midst of tragedy -
Beto O’Rourke snapped at reporters in El Paso when asked what Donald Trumpcould do to stop incidents such as the mass shooting that killed 20 people and injured two-dozen others.
The former El Paso congressman, who is among those Democrats seeking the 2020 nomination to take on the president, attended several vigils on Sunday night, where he spoke passionately about the city, its people and the problems they had endured over the years.
Having earlier in the day pointed the finger of blame at Mr Trump, saying his racist language was fuelling bigotry, he was asked if there was anything he could to improve the situation.
As FBI Director Christopher Wray noted just last week, a rise in domestic terrorism-related incidents across the US can be directly linked to violent white supremacy -
Beto O'Rourke, who has attacked the president as a "racist" and "white nationalist" after the shootings in Texas and Ohio, has now offered a statement on why he remains hopeful despite the mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso -
Joe Biden has called on Donald Trump to "put the politics aside and pass universal background checks and an assault weapons ban," adding, "lives depend on it."
Former President Barack Obama has posted the following statement in the wake of the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. Story to come...
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