The Trumps are called a 'heartless couple' for grinning photo op with baby orphaned in El Paso shooting
The Trumps are being slammed over their photo op with a baby orphaned during the El Paso shooting.
The president and first lady visited Texas and Dayton, Ohio, on Wednesday after last weekend’s mass shootings. Photos from the visits were posted to Melania’s Instagram and there has been criticism over their poses in one as they stand next to the baby, whose parents died saving his life, both grinning widely. Further, the president was giving a thumbs-up.
The photo is all over social media and critics of the president have dubbed it “disgusting” while the pair has been called a “heartless couple.” Actor John Cusack said “there is no bottom to the abyss,” while The View’s Ana Navarro-Cárdenas called the president an imbecile.
You’re telling me this is the baby whose mother and father were killed by a white supremacist triggered by Trump, who hunted them down for being Hispanic? And then, Dotard Trump sees it fit to pose doing a thumbs up. Imbecil. https://t.co/M5xf0XZDa9
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) August 9, 2019
There is no bottom to the abyss - just US forcing him out of office - by scaring the shit out of gop & Dems RT @TheHipsterRebbe: Trump grinning posing with a baby orphaned by his own vile rhetoric is a level of perversion I thought beneath even him. https://t.co/BPRl6cm4YE
— John Cusack (@johncusack) August 9, 2019
This truly macabre photo shows a grinning Donald Trump — with a smiling Melania at his side — giving a thumbs-up w/ a baby whose parents were shot dead in the El Paso white supremacist terror attack THAT TRUMP INSPIRED. Tells you all you need to know about this heartless couple. pic.twitter.com/kA4Fkws8Vs
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) August 9, 2019
This baby's parents were just murdered by a psychopath who was incited by Trump's xenophobia.
I'm not sure I've even been as angry as I am right now. This photo op is disgusting. And Melania can f ck all the way off. pic.twitter.com/RUgsP6Z6op— Jamie O'Grady 🤔 (@JamieOGrady) August 9, 2019
This is a photo of Trump grinning while Melania holds a baby orphaned by the shooting. A baby who was taken from home and forced to serve as a prop at a photo-op for the very monster whose hate killed her/his parents.
I would need 280,000 characters to say how furious I am. pic.twitter.com/4umSc9BQHu— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) August 9, 2019
I hate Donald Trump. I believe he's a criminal, a racist, a misogynist and a sexual predator.
But if you told me Trump would use an orphan baby for political damage control after he inspired a racist massacre, I'd have said "c'mon you sound crazy, even HE wouldn't do that."— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) August 9, 2019
Parents of this baby were killed by the El Paso mass murderer as they shielded his body from bullets. The baby was brought back to the hospital just for a photo-op with Trump and Melania, where a thumbs up and grin were considered an appropriate response to a baby being orphaned. pic.twitter.com/IDyljL343A
— Christian Christensen (@ChrChristensen) August 9, 2019
I am genuinely confused and horrified by this image. Am I taking this the wrong way?
Why is Trump and Melania posing, GRINNING, and giving a thumbs up with the infant who’s parents were murdered by the shooter in El Paso.
Seriously… WTH is going on? pic.twitter.com/0YA2hIQeP3— Bryan William Jones (@BWJones) August 9, 2019
This child just lost both parents to a white supremacist who drove 10 hours to a Wal Mart to kill Hispanics because, like Trump, he was concerned about an immigrant invasion.
Why, exactly, are the President and First Lady smiling? Why the hell is he doing the thumbs up sign? pic.twitter.com/BzSTljzGB4— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) August 9, 2019
It has also been lost on no one that other victims of the shooting reportedly refused to meet Trump during his El Paso hospital visit. So the fact that the baby — who’s unable to speak for himself — was in a photo circulated by the White House is especially bothersome to many.
Trump had the two month old baby shielded by parents brought back to hospital for photo op...other patients refused to meet with him. pic.twitter.com/EHPGwefwCb
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) August 8, 2019
Andre and Jordan Anchondo were the parents of the child. They were shopping for party supplies for their daughter, who is turning 6, at Walmart when the shooting rampage began. Andre died protecting Jordan and she died shielding 2-month-old Paul, who was grazed by a bullet but survived.
After the shooting, Andre’s brother Tito told NPR that the Anchondo family has always been “Republican conservatives” and his brother “was very supportive of Trump.” He added that he wanted to meet with Trump “to see if he’s genuine” and “if my political views are right or wrong” as well as “see if he feels maybe some kind of remorse for statements that he’s made" about immigrants. “I just want to have a human-to-human talk with him and see how he feels.”
In addition to the couple, 20 others were killed in the attack, which federal prosecutors are treating as an act of domestic terrorism and a potential hate crime. The shooter reportedly posted a hate-filled, anti-immigrant manifesto online just prior to the mass shooting speaking of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and writing that white people are being replaced by foreigners.
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