Trump consoles shooting victims, faces new criticism

President Donald Trump consoled victims of a mass shooting in Ohio on Wednesday but protesters and opponents denounced what they say is his extremist rhetoric on race and immigration.

The president's trip to Dayton, where nine people were gunned down over the weekend, was to be followed immediately after by a stop in the border city of El Paso, Texas, where 22 were murdered.

In Dayton, Trump and his wife Melania spent most of their time meeting patients and staff at Miami Valley Hospital, White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.

Trump told shooting survivors, "you had God watching. I want you to know we're with you all the way," according to Grisham.

But Trump's job of consoler in chief is complicated by charges that his own messaging -- in particular his vilification of illegal immigrants -- has emboldened political extremists.

Protesters gathered, holding signs that called for restrictions on gun buying and in one case simply demanding that politicians "Do something!" A Trump baby blimp, an inflatable effigy of the president in nappies, made an appearance.

"We don't want him here," one resident, Lynell Graham, told CNN, echoing earlier comments by Dayton's Democratic mayor Nan Whaley, who said she planned to tell Trump "how unhelpful he's being." There were, however, other protesters expressing support for the Republican president, illustrating just how divided the country is ahead of next year's elections.

Trump's next stop in El Paso was likely to be even edgier.

There, a gunman who echoed Trump's repeated use of the word "invasion" to describe illegal immigration, conducted his massacre at a Walmart store frequented by many Hispanic people.

Local Democratic congresswoman Veronica Escobar said she would not meet the president.

"From my perspective, he is not welcome here. He should not come here," Escobar said Tuesday on MSNBC.

Even the city's Republican mayor offered only a grudging welcome, stressing icily that he would greet Trump in his "official capacity."
One of those critics, Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, was to pile on the pressure later Wednesday with a speech accusing Trump of fanning "the flames of white supremacy."
"Trump offers no moral leadership, no interest in unifying the nation," the text of Biden's speech said. "We have a president with a toxic tongue who has publicly and unapologetically embraced a political strategy of hate, racism, and division."