In the last 24 hours, President Donald Trump has taken the time to tweet about everything from the border to the “dumb Comey memos.” Still no comment on the Waffle House shooting, however. (Images courtesy of Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images and AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
It’s been over 48 hours since three African-Americans and one Latino were gunned down by deranged a gunman at a Waffle House in Tennessee, yet President Donald Trump has not said a word condemning the white shooter who ended their lives early Sunday morning.
Suspect Travis Reinking, 29, was taken into custody Monday afternoon following an intense 35-hour manhunt involving more than 80 Nashville police officers. Authorities said Reinking fatally shot two people outside the popular eatery in Antioch before continuing his rampage inside the restaurant, where he shot and killed two others.
His killing spree was halted, however, thanks to the heroic actions of customer James Shaw Jr., who managed to wrestle the assault weapon away from the shooter, preventing further bloodshed.
The victims of the deadly attack have since been identified as Akilah Dasilva, a 23-year-old student and aspiring rapper from Antioch; DeEbony Groves, a 21–year–old honors student at Nashville’s Belmont University; Joe Perez, 20, of Nashville and Taurean Sanderlin, 29, of Goodlettsville.
The president’s glaring silence on the four minority victims and the African-American hero who likely spared other lives from being taken speaks volumes to critics, who pointed out that Trump has taken the time to gripe about almost everything — except for this incident of home-grown terrorism. Since the shooting, Trump has taken the time to bang out angry tweets regarding “the dumb Comey memos,” a so-called “witch hunt” and the border wall.
American author and pastor John Pavlovitz was among the laundry list of critics who condemned Trump’s “white presidential silence” in the wake of the tragic Waffle House shooting, especially his lack of praise for “
“This week is a microcosm of Trump’s America,” Pavlovitz wrote. ” …
Several other critics echoed this same frustration, arguing that if the Waffle House shooter were Muslim or any other race, Trump would have been banging away at his keyboard in a rage by now.
“… It’d be nice if [the President] tweeted about the four people who lost their lives in the Waffle House,” CNN’s Don Lemon commented on Monday, adding that “not unless it’s a Muslim does he tweet about something like that.” Many others agreed.
https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/status/988422663214321666
You think that Trump would’ve tweeted something great by now about the Hero in the Waffle House shooting if the hero was the one on the right instead of being the killer? @AP pic.twitter.com/67GtJa0crQ
— Mr. Reynolds (@melreynoldsU) April 23, 2018
Let's keep it real: the only way Donald Trump is going to talk about the Waffle House shooting is if Comey wrote about it in a memo.
— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) April 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/988745024560160768
Total number of tweets so far about the Waffle House mass shooting:
• @NRA: zero
• @realDonaldTrump: zero— Mark Follman (@markfollman) April 24, 2018
If a Mexican, a Muslim or an African-American had been arrested and released by the Secret Service and later killed 4 people in Tennessee, Donald Trump would be tweeting about it night and day. His silence on the Waffle House shooting speaks of his racism. https://t.co/YZvJclzs8j
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) April 23, 2018
There’s still been no word from the president regarding the shooting.
