'Callousness at its worst': Republicans blasted for still supporting the NRA after Uvalde massacre

Republicans were blasted on Saturday for attending the National Rifle Association's national convention following the Uvalde school shooting.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board described proceeding with the convention as "callousness at its worst."

"Just when it seemed the National Rifle Association’s callous disregard for the mayhem it sows couldn’t be any more shocking, it decided to proceed with its national convention in Houston this weekend. This even as Uvalde, Texas, just 280 miles away, buries 19 of its children," the newspaper reported. "The routine use of AR-15 varieties by Americans to kill other Americans en masse can, like most of the nation’s unparalleled psychosis regarding firearms, be laid directly at the feet of the NRA and its political lackeys."

The newspaper noted Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick bowed out of the event.

"That small gesture to decency is apparently too much, though, for former President Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and other attendees, who might as well be thumbing their noses at dead children this weekend," the newspaper wrote.

Trump used his speech to complain about "evil."

"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — who last year signed a law eliminating gun permit requirements that might have stymied the Uvalde shooter had they been left in place — has opted for the worst of both worlds: He will send a pre-recorded video to be played at the convention rather than attending in person, because he will be busy … in Uvalde, addressing the tragedy he and his party helped facilitate," the editorial board wrote. "In a just political world, even Republican voters would punish Abbott and his ilk for the pile of salt they are now heaping onto America’s freshest wound."

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) also pulled out of the event along with musicians Lee Greenwood, Don McLean, Larry Gatlin and Larry Stewart, CNN reported.