Aiming to play the traditional role of healer during a national tragedy, President Donald Trump paid visits Wednesday to cities reeling from mass shootings that left 31 dead and dozens more wounded.
People at El Paso grieving over the mass shooting didn't want the President to visit them. He was greeted with protests and biting political attacks from residents.
The President and first lady Melania Trump flew to El Paso after visiting the Dayton, Ohio, hospital where many of the victims of Sunday's attack in that city were treated.
Nan Whaley, mayor of Dayton was criticised by the President by saying that she mischaracterised his visit. She responded by saying, “He is a bully and coward and it's fine that he wants to bully me and Senator (Sherrod) Brown. We're okay. We can take it, but the citizens of Dayton deserve action."
Trump spent part of his flight between Ohio and Texas airing his grievances on Twitter, berating Democratic lawmakers, O'Rourke and the press. Trump and his wife Melania were greeted by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and El Paso Mayor Dee Margo at the airport. The Democratic congresswoman from El Paso, Veronica Escobar, refused to meet Trump, saying his "racist and hateful words & actions" had caused pain to her community.
Trump said before leaving Washington that he was concerned about "the rise of any group of hate... whether it's white supremacy" or any "other kind of supremacy".
El Paso city officials called upon Trump to condemn racism. City Councilwoman Claudia Ordaz Perez and County Commissioner Vincent Perez said, “If the President fails to strongly condemn this racially-motivated terrorist attack and fails to call for an end to the use of violence against minority groups by radicalized white nationalist terrorists during his visit, his continued depiction of immigrants and migrants as a threat to our nation will only place our community at greater risk for racially-motivated attacks."
Trump and the White House have always maintained that Trump does not bear some responsibility for the nation's divisions. And he continued to do so on Wednesday.
“My critics are political people,” Trump said as he left the White House, noting the apparent political leanings of the shooter in the Dayton killings.
Melendez, an Army veteran and the son of Mexican immigrants, said “That person had the intent to hurt people, he already had it,” blaming only the shooter. “No one's words would have triggered that.”
Though local Democratic leaders have been sceptical about Trump's visit, they said he had hit the right notes Wednesday.
“He was comforting. He did the right things and Melania did the right things. It's his job to comfort people,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, who nonetheless said he was “very concerned about a president that divides in his rhetoric and plays to race in his rhetoric”.
