Former President Barack Obama released a statement on Monday that never mentioned President Donald Trump by name — but his words can absolutely be seen as a rebuke of Trump after a pair of horrific mass shootings occurred this weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

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Obama, in his statement, said Americans must “soundly reject language” from any political leader who “feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.”

Obama also seemed determined to remind Americans that “we are not helpless” in the face of mass shootings — shootings that, sadly, also occurred during his administration and even before he took office.

In his tweeted message, Obama said, “Even if details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true.”

“First, no other nation on Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States … Every time this happens, we’re told that tougher gun laws won’t stop all murders; that they won’t stop every deranged individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places. But the evidence shows they can stop some killings.”

“Second,” he also wrote, “while the motivations behind these shootings may not yet be fully known, there are indications that the El Paso shooting follows a dangerous trend: troubled individuals who embrace racist ideologies and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy.”

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He went on to say, “All of us have to send a clarion call and behave with the values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of our democracy.”

As many of the Democratic candidates running for office in 2020 came out and slammed Trump as being “racist” and said he was somehow responsible for the killings, read Obama’s full statement below — plus the tweets below it.

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