White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said on Tuesday that Democrats were playing politics in the aftermath of this weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, saying it was “ridiculous” to suggest Donald Trump’s rhetoric is to blame.

Gidley told FOX News that Democratic candidates like Beto O’Rourke “don’t care about making this country safer — they only care about winning the Iowa Caucus.”

“It is disgusting to see so many on the left come before cameras within five hours of this tragedy and lie about this president and have pathetic comments about the state of this country and where this president stands,” Gidley said. “The president stands with all those who suffer through these tragedies and want to fix the problems we face. And these Democrats have played politics from the word go. And that is so sad.”

Gidley also blasted former President Obama for “interjecting himself into the conversation” with “comments that take us backward to a dark place that we never want to visit again.”

“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments,” Obama wrote Monday on Twitter, “Leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.”

“If only Barack Obama were in a place to make a difference at some point in his life,” Gidley quipped. “Oh, wait a minute, he was the president of the United States.”

“For him to interject himself into this conversation, this debate, at this point, it’s his right to do it,” he continued. “But the fact is Donald Trump is the president of all Americans. He’s trying to move this country forward, and comments like that take us backward and take us to a dark place that we never want to be and we never want to visit again.”

WATCH:

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley tells Fox News that Barack Obama criticizing Trump's racist rhetoric "takes us to a dark place that we never want to be and we never want to visit again" pic.twitter.com/4Y2poravX4

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 6, 2019