Donald Trump eschewed bluster and offered prayers and condolences. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings asked politicians and others to choose their words carefully. And House Speaker Paul Ryan urged not allowing anger to “send us further into our corners.”
As Americans recoiled in horror from the news that five Dallas police officers had been shot to death by a sniper just days after two African-American men died at the hands of police officers, key political players sought to project a measure of unity and calm, a rare moment in what has been a harshly divisive political season.
The leading presidential candidates postponed campaign events and issued somber statements. President Barack Obama, in Europe, announced he would return to the United States on Sunday, a day early, and travel to Dallas early next week.
But it remained to be seen whether the passions engendered by the volatile mix of guns, race and law enforcement would really ease over what took place in Dallas or were merely put on hold for a day or two.
Black Lives Matter activists condemned the Dallas shootings as the act of a lone gunman, calling it a tragedy for those slain and for “democracy” but saying they would not be silenced. Trump’s Virginia campaign chair blamed Hillary Clinton for the shootings in a Facebook post he later deleted, writing that “liberal politicians who label police as racists” were largely to blame for “encouraging the murder” of the police officers.
Trump himself was more restrained than usual for a candidate who was criticized last month for responding to the gay nightclub shootings in Orlando by noting on Twitter that he’d been congratulated for predicting more terrorist attacks.
Instead, he issued a lengthy statement Friday, calling for “strong leadership, love and compassion.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has often sided with police accused of excessive force, and his rallies have been a target of Black Lives Matters activists, whose cause arose in the wake of a series of police shootings of young African-Americans.
But on Friday, Trump described as “senseless, tragic” the deaths this week of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the two African-American men killed in questionable police shootings that were highlighted in online videos.
It was Trump’s first comment on the incidents, though he mistakenly referred to them as the “two motorists”; only Castile was shot during a traffic stop.
“Reminds us how much more needs to be done,” he wrote.
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Trump didn’t entirely turn over a new leaf, criticizing Clinton and the news media in a single tweet: “Isn’t it sad that on a day of national tragedy Hillary Clinton is answering softball questions about her email lies on @CNN?”