The United States continues to mourn in the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio that occurred 13 hours apart and resulted in a total of 31 deaths.
The shooter responsible for the 22 of those deaths at a shopping center in El Paso published a manifesto minutes before the shooting, featuring anti-immigrant sentiments similar to those of President Donald Trump and his supporters.
Perhaps in an attempt to deflect that criticism, the president's advisor and eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, used the shootings to remind people of violence in inner cities.
As we grieve over the evil mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, let us not overlook that Chicago experienced its d… https://t.co/cRmiIKkLYY— Ivanka Trump (@Ivanka Trump) 1565108028.0
With 7 dead and 52 wounded near a playground in the Windy City- and little national outrage or media coverage- we m… https://t.co/TxREwcPRNE— Ivanka Trump (@Ivanka Trump) 1565108028.0
Ivanka's tweet is misleading and at least partly false. This weekend was not the deadliest in Chicago this year, nor did anyone die in the shooting she references. Seven were wounded and the shooting occurred around 1:20 am, when no children were present.
The tweet also implies that the deaths took place in one incident, when in fact, none of the 29 shooting incidents in Chicago over the weekend included more than one fatality.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot soon responded:
“That’s the danger of somebody with a platform and audience … that doesn’t know what they’re talking about and getting the fundamental facts wrong that they can easily figure out if they had the decency to actually reach out to us if they wanted to be a constructive and engaged partner.”
“What I’m focused on is actually helping run the city of Chicago and working hard every day with the superintendent and his leadership team to keep people in our city safe,” Lightfoot continued. “I’m not going to be distracted by nonsense tweets from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Twitter roundly criticized Ivanka for her tone-deaf tweets.
@IvankaTrump whats wrong with u— ROSIE (@ROSIE) 1565122876.0
@IvankaTrump "There were killings that my daddy DIDN'T cause, this weekend!"— Bob B🎼🎸 (@Bob B🎼🎸) 1565112602.0
@IvankaTrump Shorter Ivanka: forget about the White Nationalist terrorism my father inspires & easy access to unreg… https://t.co/bMUd1txnOq— David Rothschild (@David Rothschild) 1565125638.0
@IvankaTrump There’s that racism we were expecting— Mike (@Mike) 1565123711.0
@IvankaTrump “Not all shootings are by daddy’s fans.”— Steven Tavani (@Steven Tavani) 1565123645.0
What's more, doesn't Chicago's violence bolster the argument for common sense gun laws?
Let us not overlook that most of the guns involved in gun violence in Chicago come from neighboring states that hav… https://t.co/GJl68LwhHW— Miranda Yaver (@Miranda Yaver) 1565109782.0
@IvankaTrump Maybe if we had strong federal gun laws it would keep Indiana’s guns out of Chicago. Just a thought.— Independent_lefty (@Independent_lefty) 1565123563.0
@IvankaTrump And what is the common denominator? GUNS!— Carol (@Carol) 1565124486.0
@IvankaTrump All of it can be at least partially addressed with sensible gun control.— Robert /\ronoff (@Robert /\ronoff) 1565125216.0
Yikes.