Trump news - live: President cites wrong city and calls mass shooters 'mentally ill monsters' in controversial speech
Donald Trump has said that tighter gun controls could be married to “desperately needed immigration reform” in response to the two mass shootings that left 29 people dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, risking accusations of political opportunism in the face of tragedy.
The president, who spent the weekend playing golf at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, initially blamed mental illness for the killings rather than the pervasive influence of the US fire arms lobby and has been heavily criticised over his rhetoric in the run up to the attacks, with Democratic 2020 challenger Cory Booker charging him with “sowing seeds of hate in this country”.
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.
The president also apparently managed to blame video games for the rise in gun violence incidents nationwide - despite all other developed countries having access to those same games, without the similar rise in deadly attacks:
Twitter users are slamming the president for incorrectly referring to the mass shooting in the city of Dayton, Ohio as an attack on "Toledo," another Ohio city -
Donald Trump referred to the city of Toledo while addressing the nation this morning about a string of mass shootings across the country. The only problem is that none of those shootings happened in Toledo. While the latest mass shooting occurred in Dayton, Ohio, Mr Trump singled out the wrong Ohio city.
Condemning white supremacist violence, the president said: "These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul."
The president also said that he had directed the Department of Justice to work with social media companies to detect mass shooters before they strike. The El Paso killer is believed to have posted a hate-filled manifesto online before the massacre, although it was anonymous, did not identify the exact target and was published less than an hour before the shooting began.
The president says mental health laws must be reformed in order to identify "mentally disturbed individuals" and says they may be subject to involuntary confinement.
The president said he has spoken with local officials to express his "unfailing support" and has also spoken with the Mexican president. Donald Trump said "federal authorities are on the ground and I have directed them to provide any and all assistance."
The president referred to the Dayton, Ohio shooter as a "wicked monster" who killed "his own sister" when he shot multiple victims in a street on Sunday.
Donald Trump called the attacks a "crime against all humanity."
Donald Trump has called the attacks over the weekend as "evil," describing the shooter in the El Paso, Texas as "a wicked man" who shot "precious little children."
