Outrage over photo of the Trumps posing with child orphaned by El Paso shooting
During their visit to El Paso on Wednesday, Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with the family of Andre and Jordan Anchondo, the couple who died protecting their two-month-old son during the El Paso shooting.
When the first lady later shared a Twitter post with photos from the El Paso trip, she included a picture of her holding the Anchondos’ son Paul, who escaped the shooting with minor injuries.
Melania Trump
(@FLOTUS)I met many incredible people in Dayton, Ohio & El Paso, Texas yesterday. Their communities are strong and unbreakable. @potus and I stand with you! pic.twitter.com/SHzV6zcVKR
Reporters later learned more about how the Trumps’ visit with Paul and his grandparents came to be:
Jim Acosta
(@Acosta)A hospital official tells CNN Trump showed “an absence of empathy” during his visit to El Paso. Also, Trump and FLOTUS both met baby who was shielded by parents who died in the shooting. The baby was brought back to the hospital to see the president. More on @CNNSitRoom tonight.
David Alandete
(@alandete)I interviewed the kid’s grandfather this afternoon and he confirmed that the White House sent two people to his home to ask him to be present during the visit. No one arranged for the photo beforehand but FLOTUS decided to hold the baby, who has a broken hand…
The series of events quickly led to accusations by many horrified Twitter users that the president and first lady had used the orphaned child as a prop.
From a Georgetown professor:
Don Moynihan
(@donmoyn)This child just lost both parents to a white supremacist who drove 10 hours to a Wal Mart to kill Hispanics because, like Trump, he was concerned about an immigrant invasion.
Why, exactly, are the President and First Lady smiling? Why the hell is he doing the thumbs up sign? pic.twitter.com/BzSTljzGB4
From a Media Matters editor:
Parker Molloy
(@ParkerMolloy)Honestly, having a baby whose parents were just murdered brought back to the hospital so he could take a photo of him smiling with a thumbs up fills me with more disgust than I knew was possible.
Do we all realize how terrible this is? https://t.co/LHdN89wDOv
August 9, 2019
From a host for the progressive site Occupy Democrats:
Brian Tyler Cohen
(@briantylercohen)AIDE: The baby’s parents were murdered in the El Paso shooting.
TRUMP: Got it.
AIDE: This has to be a solemn photo.
TRUMP: Of course.
AIDE: No smiling and NO THUM—
TRUMP: Would you relax? I get it.
TRUMP: pic.twitter.com/2XFoF50zTL
Sanders releases ad honoring Michael Brown
The presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders has released a new ad honoring Michael Brown, who was killed five years ago today in Ferguson, Missouri.
The ad features Missouri congressional candidate Cori Bush, who became a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, discussing the impact Brown’s killing had on her community.
“If I could do anything to save the life of my son because I couldn’t save Michael Brown. I couldn’t save Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones,” Bush says. “We were in a war zone, and I even heard Vietnam veterans say to me when the tear gas was going – they were saying I feel like I’m back. That was my war zone in my backyard that I couldn’t leave, that I couldn’t, I couldn’t get up and go somewhere else.”
She adds, “The only way to make change is to be able to step out and to have that courage, you know, that fearlessness. And so for me that political revolution is you being free to be you.”
The video then cuts to a clip from a Sanders campaign rally, with the candidate saying, “When we are in the White House, we are going to end institutional racism wherever it exists.”
Bush, who lost her 2018 Democratic primary to popular incumbent William Lacy Clay despite national coverage of her bid, is once again seeking the House seat next year.
Ice raids stir fear among US immigrant communities
Good morning, live blog readers — and welcome to the (almost) end of a long and difficult week.
As El Paso and Dayton continue to mourn the loss of 31 people lost in this weekend’s two mass shootings, the Mississippi Ice raids have stirred fear among the country’s immigrant communities. The raids were the largest ever Ice sweep conducted in a single state and resulted in the arrests of 680 people, most of them Latino.
‘I need my dad’: sobbing 11-year-old pleads for father’s release after immigration sting – video
The raids left dozens of children abandoned, and videos showed many of the kids crying at makeshift shelters as they were comforted by relatives and strangers. Magdalena Gomez Gregorio, an 11-year-old girl whose father was detained in the raids, offered this plea:“Government, please show some heart.”
Speaking to CNN yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said the raids, coming just days after a white supremacist warning of a Hispanic “invasion” killed 22 in El Paso, demonstrated the “insensitivity and callousness” of the Trump administration. “It is immoral,” Harris said. “These are human rights abuses being committed by the United States government.”
She continued, “People are in fear all over the country. When you combine those raids with what just happened in El Paso, and again, do you think that this administration, and this president might step back and say, wait a minute, after what just happened in El Paso, when it was motivated by hate against immigrants and Latino immigrants, do you think that a responsible leader would have said, don’t do those raids? … It shows a level of insensitivity and callousness that should not be traits of the president of the United States.”

Beto O’Rourke holds a flower bouquet while arriving to the funeral services for shooting victim Ivan Filiberto Manzano. Photograph: STRINGER/Reuters
Here’s what else the blog is keeping its eye on:
- Trump is traveling to Southampton, New York, today to hold fundraising receptions.
- The White House is expected to meet with major tech leaders from Facebook, Google and Twitter (among other companies) to discuss the rise of violent online extremism.
- Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke will attend an assembly at Mountain View High School in El Paso this morning.
- Other Democratic presidential candidates are campaigning at the Iowa State Fair.
That’s all still coming up, so stay tuned.
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