Pressure is mounting on the US president, Donald Trump, to make a comment on the racist attack in Portland, Oregon that left two men dead.
Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Rick Best, 53, were fatally stabbed on Friday while intervening to stop a racist attack on a Muslim teenager on a commuter train.
The pair have been honoured as heroes by Portland’s mayor and the FBI, but the president has remained silent, despite tweeting 10 times on Sunday on topics ranging from healthcare to fake news.
Pleas are now mounting on social media for Trump to make a statement on the attack, which was carried out by a suspected white supremacist.
Dan Rather, the veteran American journalist, led the charge on Facebook, calling on Trump to acknowledge the “brave Americans who died at the hands of someone who, when all the facts are collected, we may have every right to call a terrorist”.
Men Who Intervened In Anti-Muslim Attack In Oregon Are Honored
An Army veteran, a recent college graduate and a student who once won a poetry contest by condemning prejudice stirred up by the Sept. 11 attacks intervened as a man screamed anti-Muslim insults at two women in Portland, Ore., on Friday.
In the days that followed, the three men were hailed as heroes.
Two of the men — Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, and Rick Best, 53 — died in the attack, which occurred on a commuter train. The third, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, was treated on Saturday for injuries that the police said were serious but not life-threatening.
Jeremy Christian, 35, of North Portland, Ore., was charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the attack and could face additional charges when he is arraigned on Tuesday. Mr. Christian, who the authorities said had a history of making extremist statements on social media, was ranting at, and talking disparagingly about, the two women, one of whom was wearing a hijab.
