Sherrod Brown says he has no plans to meet with Trump during Dayton visit

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Tuesday he has no plans to meet with President Trump during the president’s planned visit to Ohio following a Sunday shooting in Dayton that killed nine people.

“I will not be there with him. I don’t have any interest because of what he’s done on this, total unwillingness to address the issue of guns, his racist rhetoric,” Brown told Sirius XM host Joe Madison.

“I don’t know what he’s going to say and do there. I mean, I welcome him to the state in some sense, but not about this,” he said.

{mosads}Brown told Madison his constituents were far more interested in concrete action against gun violence, citing chants of “do something” during a speech by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) at a vigil Sunday.

“I don’t know what the president’s doing there. I hope he apologizes for his racist rhetoric and his divisive tones,” Brown added.

The Ohio senator said “the best thing” the president could do would be to instruct Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring the Senate back into session to pass a bill mandating universal background checks, echoing remarks he made on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday.

Other Ohio and Texas elected officials have also been cool on Trump’s planned visit, with Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley (D) saying she plans to tell him “how unhelpful” he’s been.

“What do you see in D.C.? You see a lot of nothing happening on a lot of stuff and common sense gun reform is definitely an example where nothing’s happened,” she said Tuesday.

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), meanwhile, whose district includes part of El Paso, said Monday that Trump was not welcome in the city.

“He should not come here while we are in mourning,” Escobar said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”