Section:GDN 1N PaGe:4 Edition Date:190808 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 7/8/2019 20:13 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian Thursday 8 August 2019
(^4) News
US shootings
Trump met by angry protests on tour of
two cities left reeling by mass shootings
Sabrina Siddiqui Washington
Edward Helmore New York
Donald Trump was greeted by protests
in Dayton, Ohio, yesterday , three days
after two mass shootings rocked the
United States and sparked a fi restorm
over the president’s role in infl aming
racist sentiments.
The president’s visit to the sites
of the massacres, which left at least
31 dead and more than 50 injured at
the weekend in Texas and Ohio, were
met with anger by some amid allega-
tions that his anti-immigrant rhetoric
potentially infl uenced the gunman in
El Paso who opened fi re on a predom-
inantly Hispanic community. Some
local offi cials had even urged Trump
to stay away.
Trump nonetheless went ahead
with plans to travel to Dayton and El
Paso yesterday, dismissing claims that
his words and actions were contribut-
ing to violence.
The president and Melania Trump
began their visit to Dayton at the hos-
pital where many of the victims of
Sunday’s attack were treated. The
White House press secretary, Steph-
anie Grisham, tweeted that the couple
had “been stopping between rooms to
thank the hardworking medical staff.
Very powerful moments for all!”
Across the street from the hospi-
tal protesters gathered with banners
and chants.
“These are people that are looking
for political gain,” Trump told report-
ers before leaving the White House. “I
think we have toned it down. We’ve
been getting hit from the left and the
right, from everybody, many people I
don’t know.”
Pressed on the impact of his lan-
guage on immigration, Trump sought
to defl ect the focus on to social media
posts allegedly shared by the suspect
in Dayton in support of Democrats.
“In Dayton, it just came out, he was
a fan of ‘Antifa’ [anti-fascist groups],
he was a fan of Bernie Sanders and
Elizabeth Warren – nothing to do
with Trump, but nobody ever men-
tions that,” the president said.
The authorities are still searching
for any specifi c motive in Dayton,
but they have ruled out a hate crime
against any group of people and said
there was “no indication” the gun-
man’s political views bore any relation
to the mass murder.
The El Paso shooting, meanwhile, is
being investigated as a case of domes-
tic terrorism after offi cials discovered
a manifesto – believed to be have been
written by the suspect – describing the
attack as a response to “the Hispanic
invasion of Texas”. Trump, who has
not directly addressed the El Paso
suspect’s manifesto , has repeatedly
stoked fears around an “invasion”,
using that exact word repeatedly, of
migrants at the southern border.
Trump told reporters yesterday he
was “looking to do background checks”
on fi rearm purchases, although he did
not specify if he wished to expand
them. Democrats in Congress and a
handful of Republicans have called
for universal background checks – a
proposal backed by an overwhelming
majority of the American public.
“I think background checks are
important. I don’t want to put guns
into the hands of mentally unstable
people or people with rage or sick peo-
ple,” Trump said.
Asked if he would back a ban on
military-style assault weapons, Trump
said there was “no political appetite
for that at this moment”.
In a direct counter to Trump’s visit
to El Paso late yesterday, the Demo-
cratic presidential candidate Beto
O’Rourke was expected to address an
#ElPasoStrong event at a nearby park.
On Monday, O’Rourke , an El Paso
native and former congressman, dis-
couraged the president from visiting,
saying Trump “has no place here”.
“He’s helped to create what we saw
in El Paso on Saturday,” O’Rourke said.
“He’s helped to produce the suff ering
that we are experiencing right now.
This community needs to heal.”
The city’s Republican mayor, Dee
Margo, said he would welcome Trump
in an offi cial capacity but warned the
president against making further
infl ammatory statements.
New York Times President on
attack over changed headline
Jessica Glenza New York
Joan Greve Washington
Donald Trump has criticised the
New York Times after it changed its
front-page headline amid a backlash
over its portrayal of his statement on
shootings in Texas and Ohio that left
31 people dead.
The headline on Tuesday “T rump
urges unity vs racism” was changed
to “A ssailing hate but not guns” in the
paper’s second edition.
Trump blamed “the glorifi cation of
violence” in a speech that identifi ed
video games, the internet and mental
illness – but not guns – as the cause of
the slaughter that also left 53 injured
in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in
less than 24 hours over the weekend.
Yesterday he praised the original
headline in a tweet , saying it “was the
correct description... by the Failing
New York Times ”. He said the paper
was forced to change the description
because “Radical Left Democrats went
absolutely CRAZY! Fake News – That’s
what we’re up against...”
The executive editor of the New
York Times, Dean Baquet, told the
Columbia Journalism Review : “I don’t
lay out the page. I don’t pick the front-
page stories. I don’t think that’s the
role of the executive editor any more.”
He added: “It’s important for me
to say, if anyone is at fault, the execu-
tive editor is at fault.” Baquet added:
“It didn’t have enough scepticism of
what the president said.”
The headline failed to capture the
“reasons to be sceptical” of Trump ’s
call for Americans to come together
following the shootings or white
supremacy as an “evident problem ”,
Baquet told the CJR.
The president had been under
intense criticism for racist comments
directed at four congresswomen of
colour before the weekend’s shoot-
ings. He tweeted that the four women
should “go back” to where they came
from, a long time racist trope. All but
one of the women was born in the
United States.
Many people complained the
headline legitimised Trump’s sup-
porters, who argued that critics were
playing politics rather than denounc-
ing inflammatory anti-immigrant
sentiment. Trump’s rhetoric was
quoted by the gunman in El Paso.
The furore has le d to calls on social
media to cancel subscriptions to the
New York Times.
A spokesperson for the newspaper
conceded to the CJR the outlet was
experiencing a “higher volume of
cancellations” than is typical.
The uproar spotlighted how the
focus of newsrooms has shifted from
print editions to digital, and the rift
between New York Times readers’
expectations and the sensibilities of
the masthead, the CJR argued.
“I don’t believe our role is to be
the leaders of the opposition party,”
Baquet told the CJR.
▼ Activists chant slogans outside
Miami Valley hospital in Dayton
in protest at Donald Trump’s visit
PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN MINCHILLO/AP
▲ Donald Trump arrives in Ohio yesterday for a visit to Dayton where 10 people
were shot dead by a gunman on Sunday PHOTOGRAPH: LEAH MILLS/REUTERS
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