August 6, 2019

El Paso Congresswoman Says She Won’t Participate in President Trump’s Post-Shooting Visit

“I declined the invitation because I refuse to be an accessory” to his trip, Rep. Veronica Escobar tweeted Tuesday.

Representative Veronica Escobar (D-TX) answers questions after a press briefing, following the mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart.Joel Angel Juarez/AFP/Getty Images)

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) has long been a critic of President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies, but now it’s personal.

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting at an El Paso Walmart in Escobar’s district, the Democrat said her hometown “has a very different philosophy…from the philosophy that emanates from the White House. We embrace one another and take care of one another.” She later said the president “is not welcome” in El Paso. 

On Tuesday, Trump confirmed he’ll be making the trip there anyway.

Escobar took to Twitter to express her displeasure and condemn the president, who she says “has a responsibility to acknowledge the power of his words, apologize for them, and take them back.”

The congresswoman also says she was invited to participate in the president’s visit, but instead asked for a phone call to confront Trump over his racist rhetoric. She claims her request was denied. Escobar says she’ll spend the day of Trump’s visit with her grieving constituents instead.

 

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate