Aiming to play the traditional role of healer during national tragedy, President Donald Trump paid visits Wednesday to cities reeling from mass shootings that left 31 dead and dozens more wounded. But his divisive words preceded him, large protests greeted him and biting political attacks soon followed.
The president and first lady Melania Trump flew to El Paso late in the day after visiting the Dayton, Ohio, hospital where many of the victims of Sunday's attack in that city were treated.
For most of the day, the president was kept out of view of the reporters travelling with him, but the White House said the couple met with hospital staff and first responders and spent time with wounded survivors and their families.
Trump told them he was "with them," said press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
"Everybody received him very warmly. Everybody was very, very excited to see him." But outside Dayton's Miami Valley Hospital, at least 200 protesters gathered, blaming Trump's incendiary rhetoric for inflaming political and racial tensions in the country and demanding action on gun control.
Some said Trump was not welcome in their city. There were Trump supporters, as well.
In El Paso, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke spoke to several hundred people at a separate gathering. O'Rourke, a potential Democratic 2020 presidential rival, has blistered Trump as a racist instigator but also told those in his audience the open way the people of his home town treat each other could be "the example ot the United States of America."
"My critics are political people," Trump said as he left the White House, noting the apparent political leanings of the shooter in the Dayton killings. He also defended his rhetoric on issues including immigration, claiming instead that he "brings people together."
Dorothee Bouquet, stood in the bright sun with her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, tucked in a stroller. She told them they were going to a protest "to tell grownups to make better rules."
"He was comforting. He did the right things and Melania did the right things. It's his job to comfort people," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, who nonetheless said he was "very concerned about a president that divides in his rhetoric and plays to race in his rhetoric."
Grisham, responding on Twitter from aboard Air Force One, sad it was "genuinely sad" to see the lawmakers "immediately hold such a dishonest press conference in the name of partisan politics."
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