ABC News(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday weighed in for the first time on the serial bombings in Austin, calling the person or people responsible “sick” and vowing law enforcement “will get to the bottom of it.”
“What’s going on in Austin — a great place, a tremendous place — is absolutely disgraceful,” Trump said in the Oval Office alongside Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. “We have to find this very sick person or people.”
Trump would not answer whether the five bombings over the past 18 days amount to acts of domestic terror or hate crimes, instead praising the cooperation between the federal government and local officials in the investigation thus far.
“We have to find them really immediately,” Trump said. “I will say working with Texas, working with the local governments has been great. We have to produce and find this very sick person or people.”
The White House has faced some criticism over what some have deemed a relatively muted public response to the bombings. The only previous mention by the White House prior to the president’s comments was an acknowledgment by deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley that Trump was briefed on the Sunday evening trip-wire bombing and was following events closely.
Critics noted a striking contrast between the president’s immediate public response in the wake of terror-related incidents such as the New York truck attack on Halloween last year and the explosions in Austin that have produced no clear indication as to who the suspect or suspects could be.
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