This archive report was first published on 5 August 2019.
US President Donald Trump faced mounting pressure on Sunday to address the country's gun violence epidemic after two mass shootings left 29 dead and sparked accusations that his rhetoric was part of the problem.
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire at a crowded Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 20 people and wounding 26. Thirteen hours later, a gunman killed nine people outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio.
Trump said 'hate has no place in our country,' but he also blamed mental illness for the violence, despite police not confirming this to be the case.
"These are really people that are very, very seriously mentally ill," Trump said.
However, critics say Trump's habit of speaking in derogatory terms about immigrants is pushing hatred of foreigners into the political mainstream and encouraging white supremacism.
"To pretend that his administration and the hateful rhetoric it spreads doesn't play a role in the kind of violence that we saw yesterday in El Paso is ignorant at best and irresponsible at worst," said the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Republican mayor of El Paso, Dee Margo, seemed to discount any race element to the Texas shooting, telling Fox News the gunman was 'deranged.'
However, several Democratic presidential hopefuls said Trump bears some of the blame for the violence.
"Our president isn't just failing to confront and disarm these domestic terrorists, he is amplifying and condoning their hate," Pete Buttigieg tweeted.
