Trump has offered no words of condolence
Adam Purinton was in court yesterday. It appears he thought those two Indian guys he shot were Iranian.
Less than five hours after a man shot up a Kansas bar, killing one Indian man and wounding two other people in an apparently racially motivated attack, an Applebee’s bartender 70 miles away made a 911 call.
The woman on the phone told the dispatcher that a man had come into her bar and told her he “had done something really bad and he was on the run from the police.”
The man wouldn’t tell her what he did but kept asking her to allow him to stay at her house. The bartender persisted, persuading him to tell her what happened. “He said he shot and killed two Iranian people in Olathe,” the bartender said.
Indian, Iranian – Yemeni, Sudanese – whatever. They’re all bad hombres, right?
This is another one Trump hasn’t bothered to say anything about, as the Kansas City Star observes.
Nearly a week has passed since two India-born engineers were singled out and shot at an Olathe bar, presumably because they were immigrants, darker in skin tone and possibly viewed by the shooter as unwanted foreigners.
People around the world were immediately and rightfully horrified.
But our president?
Mum. Not a word has been spoken, tweeted or prepped for Trump’s teleprompter.
Trump has offered no words of condolence for the grieving widow of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who died from his gunshot wounds.
The president has expressed no sympathy for Kuchibhotla’s best friend, Alok Madasani, who continues to recover from bullet wounds and the trauma.
Trump usually loves to celebrate all-American heroes. But he’s passed on commending Ian Grillot, a bystander who leapt to take the gunman down before anyone else was harmed. Grillot was shot, too.
I guess complaining about “fake news” and sucking up the flattery of Fox and Friends takes up all his time.
During such moments of crisis, people look to the president for strength and guidance.
They need to hear their moral outrage articulated, the condemnation of a possible hate crime and the affirmation that the U.S. values everyone’s contributions, whether you’re an immigrant or native-born.
Ordinarily I don’t, really, but I guess that turns out to be because I take it for granted. Now? It’s impossible to take it for granted, so the silence is deafening.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has faced questions about the president’s response to the Olathe shootings. Spicer termed the murder “tragic.”
But when Spicer was asked about any correlation between the shootings and Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, the White House press secretary proclaimed the assertion “absurd,” shutting down further discussion.
Those are your bad hombres right there.
WTF is wrong with people (not Him, we know what’s wrong with Him)? Persians and Indians look *nothing* alike…
Trump hasn’t said anything because Trump doesn’t care. They weren’t his people.
He doesn’t care, but every previous president knew enough to pretend to care.
I’m imagining Trump trying to pronounce the Indian victims’ names and part of me is glad he’s staying silent.