EL PASO (Texas, US), Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump
will visit El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday following a mass shooting in the
southern border town that killed 22 people, the local mayor said.
“President Trump called me Sunday. He was very gracious in the call…
(and) offered to help in any way he could,” Dee Margo told a news conference.
Trump has been accused by his opponents of helping to stir up resentment
against ethnic minority groups with his divisive rhetoric, and some locals in
El Paso — which has a mainly Hispanic population — have said that the
president would not be welcome.
But Margo, who is a member of Trump’s Republican party and has been a
vocal supporter of the president, defended the prospect of his visit.
“This is the office of the mayor of El Paso in an official capacity
welcoming the office of the president of United States, which I consider is
my formal duty,” he told reporters.
“I will ask President Trump to support our efforts with any and all
federal resources that are available.”
Meanwhile, former president Barack Obama warned against leaders feeding a “climate of fear” through their rhetoric as the United States mourned 31 people killed in two weekend mass shootings.
At least 22 people killed in the El Paso massacre while in Dayton,
Ohio, nine people died in that shooting.
“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,” Obama said in a rare statement.
He did not specifically name President Donald Trump, who has been accused in the wake of the massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio of fanning the flames of intolerance through his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
But Obama singled out 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.” — NNN-AGENCIES