Vermont officials exploit tragedy, blame Trump for mass shootings

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

POINTING FINGERS: Vermont politicians were quick to blame President Donald Trump for two mass shootings that killed 29 people over the weekend in Texas and Ohio.

In less than 24 hours, two mass shootings have left 29 people dead in Texas and Ohio, and numerous Vermont politicians are reacting by pinning the blame on President Donald Trump.

The first shooting occurred Saturday morning at an El Paso shopping complex, leaving 20 people dead and at least 26 wounded. Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, was taken into custody. Crusius left a manifesto saying that illegal immigrants were invading the United States and his act of violence was an attempt to defend the country.

Early Sunday morning, a mass shooting in in Dayton, Ohio, killed nine and injured 27 others. The shooter was identified as 24-year-old Connor Betts, of Bellbrook, Ohio. Betts was found to espouse far-left ideology by calling for socialism and retweeting posts from Antifa.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., quickly released a statement blaming Trump for the shootings, despite reports that Betts was known to retweet Sanders’ comments.

“I am sure that President Trump does not want anybody in this country to go around shooting other people,” Sanders said. “But what he has got to understand is that when you have language that is racist, that is virulently anti-immigrant, there are mentally unstable people in this country who see that as a sign to do terrible, terrible things. I think the president has to stop the racism and that xenophobia immediately.”

Sanders added that “talk about invasions and hordes of people” could cause unstable people to “take up arms and do the horrific things that we just saw in El Paso.”

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., also used his Twitter account to put the blame squarely on the president.

In another tweet, he calls on Trump to enact gun control measures and then “get out of the way!”

Vermont’s senior senator, Rep. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., also joined in the post-shooting Trump-bashing.

Gov. Phil Scott, while not mentioning Trump by name, hinted that rhetoric is to blame for the shootings.

“This is a tragedy, not only for the lives lost and the heartbreak of the families and communities, but because it is evidence that too many people in this country have hate in their hearts,” Scott said in a statement. “As a great man said long ago, ‘hate cannot drive out hate.’ We must come together as a country and have a serious, thoughtful and compassionate conversation about how to stop these attacks, and how to heal the divisiveness we’ve seen growing for years.”

Some Twitter users pushed back on Vermont’s congressional delegation, saying the weekend tragedies should not be used for playing politics.

Others highlighted that Vermont, which until recently had very few gun restrictions, has ranked among the safest states in the nation.

Last year Vermont passed S.55, which included universal background checks and magazine limits. This year gun control advocates pushed for a 24-hour wait period to purchase a gun. The governor signed S.55 amid much protest from conservatives in 2018, and this year he vetoed the 24-hour bill.

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North Reports. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.

Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr

14 thoughts on “Vermont officials exploit tragedy, blame Trump for mass shootings

  1. We have three idiots representing Vermont in Washington. They continue to push gun laws with no regard for the real causes of these shootings. We have a burgeoning out of control mental health crisis in this country. Out of control social media that spews hate 24/7. Drug addiction that kills 180 people a day in this country. Congress and legislatures across America have done nothing substantive to stop/reduce these blights on our population. Most all illicit drugs cross the southern border and Trump has tried everything possible to stop the flow but the Democrats have fought it every step of the way. They say it would hurt immigration into this country. By convenience, they forget the operative word, ILLEGAL (on purpose) in describing those coming across the border. America welcomes over 1M legal immigrants annually, more than any other country in the world.

    Bernie in his haste to blame Trump for everything forgets the shooter at the Congressional baseball game was “inspired” by him and all of his anti-American ranting. The shooter in Dayton was a Bernie “person” and praised Antifa and other left wing extreme terrorist groups. I am waiting for Bernie to apologize…. something I won’t see in my lifetime I am sure.

    Several weeks ago Bernie in one of his rants on gun control made the most outrageous statement I have heard in years. He said that the “Straw purchase provision” to buy a firearm needed to be RESCINDED! Huh? There is no such thing as a straw purchase provision… it is in fact a law to criminalize someone who could legally purchase a firearm from doing so and transferring it to a prohibited person. The man doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about.

    These three clowns in Washington are a disgrace and an embarrassment to Vermont. They are strictly followers, not leaders.

    Liberals won’t help fix any real issues as they created them. They said it was inhumane to house the mentally ill in state hospitals. Across the country most have closed. The drug culture started in the 60’s with the liberal hippie movement, you know man, just trip out. Now we have social media, started by liberals as a feel good place we can all go to. Now we see it is a main source for hatred, divisiveness, and beyond.

    So don’t expect the liberals/progressive/socialists to do anything meaningful as they love all of those things and in turn they hate your god given constitutional right to own a firearm. 150M of us are not worthy of responsibly managing the 300M firearms we possess.

  2. In search of truth: require all candidates one day beforwe debates to drink a bottle of Castor Oil. That should clean the crap out of them (both parties).

  3. These three, and all the democratic candidates come across as angry people who are mad at everything. We don’t need a single one of them in our government.

    And just about every picture of Mr. B.S., makes me think of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the desk at the UN.

  4. Blame Democrats! These people are so full of hate for our president they probably are staging these mass murders to drive him from office!

  5. Will Senator Sanders own up to the fact that the Dayton shooter was a big Bernie and Lizzy supporter – will he apologize for the tragedy caused by HIS rhetoric ? Probably not, he didn’t do so last year when a Bernie supporter shot up the Republican baseball practice session in Washington, DC.

  6. The anti illegal shooter would have been driven to action more from the
    words of the 20 clown car candidates promising the invaders free health care, free education, free housing while offering not as much as a how dee doo to actual citizens of the USA. and no more infringing law would have prevented either. The video game freak was another KNOWN one that nothing was done about. The big question is why when the demontards are hitting the low spots (2 beyond boring debates? that Trump won) one of these shootings magically appear..

  7. Why does anyone listen to our babbling buffoons and yes, I’m including Leahy in that group.
    Take away the cell phones with all their demeaning hate and knockdowns of each other along with those violent videos these kids have been watching for the last 10-15 years and the liberalism that is being taught in our schools and you might see some improvements.
    Nobody wants to be responsible for anything anymore but it has to be the guns fault. Lets penalize the responsible gun owners for you don’t want to address the real problems that are causing these shootings. Instead of doing your jobs, you find it easier to blame Trump for all your woes.
    You liberal/socialist democrats are pathetic..

  8. It’s main cause is the moral decay of America and American institutions ,the family churches and society in general,leaving us with broken people that commit the unspeakable acts.
    The items/objects used are just that objects,yet the first call from the Burnmeister and those of his ilk are a ban on items/objects,rather than trying to fix the broken people that commit these horrendous acts.
    The politicians of his ilk do not want to fix what they have proffered over the last 50 or so years as that doesn’t fit the agenda and goal of the Left.

  9. Here are our three stooges complaining about the divisiveness and the rhetoric from Trump while they are guilty for the very same thing. As long as the prevailing attitude in DC is hate, divisiveness, and ignorant rhetoric then it will only get worse in this country with people lining up behind their ideological leadership.

  10. Hey Bernie, you and your equally moronic members of Vermont’s congressional delegation forgot to include the flooding in mid- America, the earthquake in Indonisia, the crabgrass in lawns, the unpaved roads in Vermont, the DUIS, the mess in Baltimore, and whatever else in you list of Trump caused problems. He is a very convenient excuse for all YOUR short falls.

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