President Donald Trump on Monday suggested tying gun reforms to immigration laws, in response to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, tweeting that lawmakers should “come together and get strong background checks” and combine such legislation with “immigration reform.”
He also suggested that the media was responsible for the scourge of mass shootings and “the anger and rage that has built up over many years.”
The suspected assailant in the El Paso shooting allegedly shared a manifesto expressing anti-immigrant beliefs. Law enforcement officials are investigating the shooting as an incident of domestic terrorism.
Trump has regularly amplified white supremacist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, despite saying Sunday that “hate has no place in our country.” While condemning the shootings, the president said that they were evidence of “a mental illness problem,” making no mention of white supremacy.
Over the weekend, a number of lawmakers and public figures linked the shootings to Trump’s fomenting of hatred.
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks on the shooting at 10 a.m. Monday.