None of the 8 still-hospitalized survivors of the El Paso mass shooting wanted to meet with Trump during his visit to the city
- None of the still-hospitalized survivors of the Saturday mass shooting in El Paso, Texas wanted to meet with President Donald Trump during his visit to the city, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
- "This is a very sensitive time in their lives," a hospital spokesman, Ryan Mielke, said. "Some of them said they didn't want to meet with the president. Some of them didn't want any visitors."
- "We met with also the doctors, nurses, the medical staff. They have done an incredible job. Both places just incredible," Trump told reporters after the visit.
- Trump's visit was met by a number of protests and resistance from local lawmakers and community leaders in both El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, the site of another mass shooting he also visited on Wednesday.
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None of the still-hospitalized survivors of the Saturday mass shooting in El Paso, Texas wanted to meet with President Donald Trump during his visit to the city, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Trump's visit to the city was shrouded by massive protests from residents and community groups who opposed Trump coming to the city because of his long history of demonizing immigrants for political gain.
A spokesperson for El Paso's University Medical Center told the Washington Post that none of the eight surviving victims receiving treatment in the hospital wanted to meet with Trump during his visit there.
"This is a very sensitive time in their lives," the spokesman, Ryan Mielke, said. "Some of them said they didn't want to meet with the president. Some of them didn't want any visitors."
Trump, however, said he had a meaningful and productive visit to the hospital in El Paso, telling reporters, "we were there a lot longer than we were anticipated to be. Supposed to be just a fairly quick, we met with numerous people. We met with also the doctors, nurses, the medical staff. They have done an incredible job. Both places just incredible."
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire in an El Paso Wal-mart, killing 22 people and wounding dozens of others. Shortly before the shooting, the suspect is believed to have posted a manifesto on the website 8chan warning of a "Hispanic invasion" of Texas and writing that he was "simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion."
Authorities in Texas are investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism, and federal prosecutors have announced they will seek the death penalty for the suspected shooter.
After the shooting, many Democratic elected officials and community activists said Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric helped normalize and legitimize the kind of white supremacist hate which the shooter - who is believed to have specifically targeted Latino people - openly espoused.
In speeches and in thousands of Facebook ads, the Trump campaign has invoked the language of an "invasion" across the Southern border to drum up support for his campaign, and for building a wall across the US' southern border.
And in recent weeks, Trump has lodged a number of racially inflammatory attacks against Democratic lawmakers of color, telling four progressive congresswomen of color to "go back and fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came." He later smiled and did not interject when attendees at one of his campaign rallies chanted "send her back!" in reference to black lawmaker Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Read more: Trump made himself the victim on a day meant to be about the victims of mass shootings
While Trump denounced all forms of white supremacy and racist hate in a Monday speech at the White House, he placed the blame for mass shootings on mentally ill people and violent video games - claims that have been thoroughly discredited by expert researchers.
Trump was met by a number of protests in both Dayton and resistance from local lawmakers and community leaders. Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso in Congress, refused to join Trump and claimed he told her he was "too busy" to talk to her earlier in the week.
During his visits to El Paso and to Dayton, Ohio - the site of another mass shooting that took place on Sunday - Trump spent much of the day complaining and tweeting insults at the media and Democratic politicians from the two states, including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, and Texas congressman Joaquin Castro.
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Photos show El Paso and Dayton coming together to honor shooting victims as the country grieves