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
Trump is up and has this to say on the mass shootings.
He's apparently piling the pressure on Mitch McConnell to hear the background checks bill - which is decidedly positive - while calling for bipartisan co-operation on the issue in tandem with his own "immigration reform" agenda, which is pretty appallingly opportunistic as well as less than coherent, given that both shooting suspects were American citizens.
Here's Samuel Osborne's breaking report.
As the debate inevitably swings back towards gun control - there are an estimated 393m fire arms in America, a country with a population of 329m - here's what activists are up against when it comes to the might of the NRA.
Riddled with infighting, haemorrhaging money and facing a series of investigations into its operating practices, the body known for grading US politicians with a high school-style report card remains a force to be reckoned with.
As new details emerge about the weekend's killings sprees in Texas and Ohio, few can be more heartbreaking than the story of mother Jordan Anchondo, who gave her life to shield her two-month-old infant son from a hail of bullets.
Corazon Miller has this report.
Here's Trump blaming the media for the weekend's atrocities.
"Fake News has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years."
He's also retweeted this vapid aphorism, dating from as long ago as 18 December 2018.
On the subject of Trump's racist rhetoric, Maryland representative Elijah Cummings has invited the president to visit the city of Baltimore to see how wrong he was to attack the place as a "rat and rodent infested mess".
His reception would no doubt be... warm... should he decide to accept it.
Here's our report.
For Indy Voices, Lacey Wallace asks whether "gun buybacks" could be the answer to America's mass shooting plague.
Satirist John Oliver has warned the US that it is "completely f***ed" if it continues to ignore the growing problems of domestic terrorism and white nationalism.
In the last hour, Trump has continued his campaign of light harassment against the Federal Reserve.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, pop star Rihanna offered one of the most considered and coherent responses heard so far to the weekend's twin tragedies, linking the shootings to last week's massacre at a California garlic festival in a post on Instagram in which she addressed the president directly.
"Um… Donald, you spelt ‘terrorism’ wrong! Your country had 2 terrorist attacks back to back hours apart leaving almost 30 innocent people dead," the superstar wrote.
"This, just days after yet another terrorist attack in California, where a terrorist was able to LEGALLY purchase an assault rifle (AK-47) in Vegas, then drive hours to a food festival in Cali leaving 6 more people dead including a young infant baby boy! Imagine a world where it’s easier to get an AK-47 than a VISA! Imagine a world where they build a wall to keep terrorists IN AMERICA!!!
"My prayers and deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims from Texas, California, and Ohio! I’m so sorry for your loss! Nobody deserves to die like this! NOBODY!’"
Donald Trump is expected to address the nation at 10:00am EST following a series of mass shootings, with several seemingly tied to white nationalism.
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