After a weekend during which the nation witnessed two horrific mass shootings that took the lives of at least 29 people and injured dozens others, President Donald Trump gave a statement on Monday condemning white supremacy and all forms of hate and vowing to take measures to prevent future massacres. Following Trump’s remarks, former President Barack Obama issued his own statement, which took thinly veiled swipes at Trump, called for stricter gun control laws, and called out internet platforms over their handling of white nationalist content.
Early Monday morning, President Trump pushed back against accusations from Democratic politicians and left-leaning media figures blaming his rhetoric for the murderous actions of the El Paso and Dayton shooters. “The Media has a big responsibility to life and safety in our Country. Fake News has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years,” Trump tweeted. “News coverage has got to start being fair, balanced and unbiased, or these terrible problems will only get worse!”
A few hours later, Trump gave a televised statement from the White House calling on the country to denounce white supremacy and other forms of racial hate. “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated,” he said. “Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.”
Soon after Trump’s televised statement, Obama issued a “rare public rebuke” of Trump, as The Daily Mail describes it. In the statement, which he posted on social media, Obama suggestively denounced “any of our leaders” who “demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life.”
“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people,” he said.
Saying the U.S. suffers the most gun violence and mass shootings of any developed country, Obama called for tougher gun laws, which he said evidence shows “stop some killings.” Public officials who don’t change our gun laws, he said, should be held “accountable.”
The former president also called on internet platforms to take action against white nationalist content. “Like the followers of ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, these individuals may act alone, but they’ve been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the internet,” Obama said of white supremacist shooters. “That means that both law enforcement agencies and internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups.”
Below is Obama’s full statement via The Daily Mail:
Michelle and I grieve with all the families in El Paso and Dayton who endured these latest mass shootings. Even if details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true.
First, no other nation on Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States. No other developed nation tolerates the levels of gun violence that we do. Every time this happens, we’re told that tougher gun laws won’t stop all murders; that they won’t stop every deranged individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places. But the evidence shows that they can stop some killings. They can save some families from heartbreak. We are not helpless here. And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.
Second, while the motivations behind these shootings may not yet be fully known, there are indications that the El Paso shooting follows a dangerous trend: troubled individuals who embrace racist ideologies and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy. Like the followers of ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, these individuals may act alone, but they’ve been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the internet. That means that both law enforcement agencies and internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups.
But just as important, all of us have to send a clarion call and behave with the values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of our democracy. We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people. Such language isn’t new- it’s been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history, here in America and around the world. It is at the root of slavery and Jim Crow, the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. It has no place in our politics and our public life. And it’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much – clearly and unequivocally.
Related: Mexico Threatens Legal Action Against U.S. After El Paso Massacre