By Mona Austin
(Washington, DC): The nation is in tears after back-to-back mass shootings, reinvigorating the gun debate among Democrats and Republicans and leaving the nation shell shocked.
Pres. Trump denounced white supremacy in a presser about mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH while evoking the death penalty.
Reading prepared remarks in the Diplomat Room of the White House, he lamented the death and harm done to 80 people over 2 days and sent condolences to Mexico for the lives of their citizens that were lost. Both acts of domestic terrorism were carried out by men in their twenties, reminiscent of Timothy McVeigh who bombed a government building in Oklahoma, a grim reminder that hate sprouts in young hearts.
McVeigh was executed by lethal injection. He used the poem 'Invictus,' which means undefeated, as his last words in which the final line reads, “I am the captain of my soul.”
While this may reflect that he took ownership of the evil he was doing, such demented thinking comes from mental illness at times, which is something Trump also acknowledged.
Whereas he glossed over claims of racism, bigotry and white supremacy in the past, “Trump called out each offense this time: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy....Hate has no place in America."
The president is hoping bipartisan legislation can be passed for stricter background checks. Lawmakers on both sides have weighed in on the remarks with prospective presidential opponent Sen. Corey Booker calling it “bullsh*t soup.”
Former Pres. Obama tweeted a statement calling the shooters domestic terrorists who were radicalized by white supremacy, likening their murders to ISIS.
Detractors uproariously criticized the POTUS for not assigning blame to the racist chants at his rallies or to xenophobia.
In addition he pointed to the internet and social media as causes of the deadly conduct. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that white supremacy and the conduct from the president that she and 3 other freshman congresswomen experienced is being imitated. “We can and will stop this evil contagion,” the POTUS promised. In a 5-point plan directed the FBI to use tools to detect the plans of bad actors, take off limits for universal background checks and directed the Department of Justice to essentially go back to the days of McVeigh and ensure that “those who commit hate crimes and mass murders face the DEATH PENALTY - and that this capital punishment be delivered quickly, decisively, and without years of needless delay.”