Since the tragic shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the media has driven the narrative that President Donald Trump is to blame for the deaths of 31 people because his racist remarks, and most outlets have featured survivors of the tragedies who are critical of the president.
Breitbart News reported on National Public Radio’s (NPR) effort to find Trump haters in El Paso and instead the tax-payer funded media outlet came face to face with Tito Anchondo, who lost his brother and sister-in-law. Anchondo said his brother and his whole family are Republicans and support Trump.
Now the Washington Post has profiled Anchondo in a story headlined, “Why one family mourning El Paso victims chose to meet with Trump” and embedded a video on top of the story featuring people who refused to meet with Trump in Texas.
“Tito Anchondo wishes people would stop politicizing his family’s tragedy,” the Post reported before it proceeded with a political spin:
Melania Trump posted a photo Thursday on Twitter showing the meeting with Tito Anchondo, his sister, Deborah Ontiveros, and the infant. In the photo, Melania holds the baby, while Trump smiles and gives a thumbs-up — an image that drew anger on social media. Some criticized the president’s facial expression and thumbs-up at such a somber moment and questioned why the infant was photographed with a leader whom some blame for inciting the violence that killed his parents.
But Anchondo strongly rejects that view of the shootings and said he did not want the photo to be seen through a political lens.
And Anchondo praised Trump after he met with the president and first lady at University Medical Center of El Paso with his sister, Deborah Ontiveros, and his brother’s now-orphaned infant son, Paul.
“He was just there as a human being, consoling us and giving his condolences,” Anchondo told the Post.
The president “wasn’t there to be pushing any kind of political agenda,” Anchondo said, describing “a private conversation between human beings.”
“Yes, definitely,” Anchondo said when the Post asked him if he felt consoled by his conversation with Trump.
Then the Post discounted Anchondo’s meeting with Trump by reporting that he was invited only “after it became clear that none of the hospitalized shooting victims would meet him.”
The Post concluded its report by using an anonymous White House source who said aides were worried about Trump’s thumbs-up photos and “have encouraged him to strike a more empathetic tone.”
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