On Monday morning, President Donald Trump condemned the white supremacy behind the terrorist attack in El Paso, Texas, and called for measures to fight mass shootings. Yet he concluded his remarks with “May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo.” Democrats and liberals pounced on the misstatement, ignoring two glaring misstatements from former Vice President Joe Biden, the current frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
“Toledo. Fck me,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), a 2020 candidate, tweeted.
Toledo. Fck me.
— Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) August 5, 2019
“The Trump White House is so incompetent and insensitive that they couldn’t even get the name of the city right. The mass shooting took place in Dayton, Ohio — not Toledo,” CNN Commentator Keith Boykin tweeted.
The Trump White House is so incompetent and insensitive that they couldn’t even get the name of the city right.
The mass shooting took place in Dayton, Ohio — not Toledo. pic.twitter.com/NF4xIveo7C
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 5, 2019
“Is it too much to ask that we have a President who can get the name of the city that just suffered a massacre right? It’s not Toledo. It’s Dayton,” sleazy lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted. “This guy is a f**king embarrassment.”
Is it too much to ask that we have a President who can get the name of the city that just suffered a massacre right? It’s not Toledo. It’s Dayton. This guy is a fucking embarrassment.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) August 5, 2019
Far-left political action group Democracy for America mocked Trump for the mistake, tweeting, “The White Supremacist in Chief can’t even read his fake message of condolence off a teleprompter correctly.”
“May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo.”
The #WhiteSupremacistInChief can't even read his fake message of condolence off a teleprompter correctly.
— Democracy for America (@DFAaction) August 5, 2019
Giffords Courage, a gun control group founded by shooting victim and former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), mocked Trump for the mistake.
What Trump got wrong:
The city: It's Dayton, not Toledo.
The problem: It's gun access, not mental health & social media.
The solution: It’s commonsense gun laws, not empty promises.Gun violence is a uniquely American crisis. That won’t change unless we strengthen our gun laws. https://t.co/CmM0mXvcLg
— Giffords (@GiffordsCourage) August 5, 2019
Yet as liberals pounce on Trump’s admittedly embarrassing mistake, they seemingly ignored a worse mistake from Biden.
At a fundraiser Sunday night, Biden referred to “the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before,” but later corrected himself, Fox News reported. He seemingly confused Houston for El Paso and Michigan for Ohio when addressing the shootings.
“Joe Biden thought yesterday that the El Paso tragedy was in Houston and that the Dayton tragedy was in Michigan,” the Federalist’s Ryan Saavedra tweeted. “Most of the people who are attacking Trump for saying ‘Toledo’ instead of Dayton are not going to say a word about Biden.”
Joe Biden thought yesterday that the El Paso tragedy was in Houston and that the Dayton tragedy was in Michigan
Most of the people who are attacking Trump for saying "Toledo" instead of Dayton are not going to say a word about Biden pic.twitter.com/EYrQiYriWE
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 5, 2019
It seems the focus on Trump’s “Toledo” misstatement has more to do with distracting audiences than with true outrage on behalf of victims. Despite Democrats’ insistence that Trump is responsible for the El Paso shooting and the “white supremacy” behind it, the president clearly and unequivocally condemned white supremacy. Liberals may be desperate to distract from this fact.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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