George Conway, a vocal Trump critic and the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, tweeted a political cartoon Wednesday with one panel showing President Trump encouraging a gunman in the wake of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend.
One side of the cartoon shows Trump telling a gunman phrases from his campaign and public comments about undocumented immigrants, such as “Build the wall,” “It’s an invasion” and “They’re criminals.” The other side shows the president yelling “You’re mentally ill!” at the gunman with the two surrounded by dead bodies.
The cartoon, from the Instagram account RightHandedLeftyArtist, came after some accused the president’s rhetoric on immigration of inspiring the suspected gunman in the El Paso attack, which more than 20 people dead. The suspect allegedly posted an anti-immigrant manifesto to the fringe site 8chan before carrying out the attack.
{mosads}On Monday, Trump called on the country to condemn “bigotry, hatred and white supremacy,” in a televised address from the White House. He also called mass shooters “mentally ill monsters.”
“Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger — not the gun,” Trump said. However, the president tweeted that “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks” Monday.
Trump told White House hopeful and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), an El Paso native, to “be quiet” after he criticized the president for “calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals” following the shooting.
O’Rourke responded, “22 people in my hometown are dead after an act of terror inspired by your racism. El Paso will not be quiet and neither will I.”