President Donald Trump should "not set foot in El Paso" following Saturday's white supremacist terrorism killed 22 people a local politician argues.
There seem to be two major issues with Trump's rumored visit to the grieving border town. The first is the role Trump's racist rhetoric played in precipitating the massacre. The second, Trump's re-election campaign still owes El Paso $470,000 from an anti-immigrant rally he held.
"I call our governor, I call on our senators to send a message to our president and ask him not to set foot in El Paso,” El Paso Democratic Commissioner David Stout told Vice News.
Stout represents both the scene of the terrorist attack and the location of Trump's rally.
“I do believe that the president and his administration has contributed the hate, has contributed to the vitriol, has contributed to the negativity that we have been experiencing. And now we have lost 22 people,” Stout said. “And why? Because we have leaders that are not only unwilling to denounce hate, they're instigating it.”
El Paso City Rep. Alexsandra Annello believes a presidential visit would be selfish.
“Our police department, our fire department, our health department, they’ve been dealing with the reunification of families, and also helping the families who have just lost a family member. They’re already strained,” Annello said. “To ask our police and our fire department’s to stop what they’re doing now to assist his visit, it seems selfish to ask that of our community and the people who have lost family members.”
“A visit from Trump would be a lot to take in," said City Rep. Peter Svarzbein.