Criticism is growing over U.S. President Donald Trump, following a series of mass shootings in America over the weekend. Many people point out that some of the racist remarks from the U.S. president are fueling hate crimes by white supremacists. The criticism is further stoked by the revelation that President Trump was playing golf in New Jersey even after the Saturday massacre in El Paso, Texas. Gun control is likely to become a defining issue for the upcoming presidential election next year.
According to The Associated Press, the mass shooting that occurred on Sunday morning in Dayton, Ohio, was committed by a suspect named Connor Betts, a 24-year-old white man. While Betts was killed in less than a minute after the mayhem, as many as nine (the suspect excluded) were killed and 27 were injured. Among the dead was Megan Betts, the suspect’s sister. Police said that the suspect had ordered his weapon online, and that he was wearing a 100-bullet magazine, body armor, and ear protection, which suggests the killing was premeditated.
On Saturday, another mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, leaving as many as 20 dead and 26 injured. Bodies of evidence are coming to light that the suspect named Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man, had targeted Hispanic immigrants, further escalating racial tensions in America.
The Washington Post and the Democratic Party slammed President Trump, saying that his repeated racist remarks have led to the latest incidents. On July 14, Trump yelled at four female Democrat lawmakers of colors to “go back” to their countries. At the end of July, the president called Baltimore, the largest city of Maryland, a state with dominant African population, “a disgusting, rats and rodents infested mess.”
In what appears to be a defensive gesture, President Trump tweeted the Federal government’s responses to the mass shootings Sunday. Letting it be known that he ordered flags to be flown at half-staff, President Trump called the mass shooting in El Paso an “act of cowardice” adding that he stands “with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act.”
“The person in Dayton was a sick person,” said Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in an interview with ABC News, arguing that no politician is to blame for that.
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