Trump showed no compassion and never got out of his chair to comfort survivors and parents who lost children in Parkland, Florida at the White House.
Andrew Pollack was pissed that he lost his daughter:
Grieving father AndrewPollack gets no response from Trump only when he offers something that could be construed as praise for the president. pic.twitter.com/NHtkXbLvML
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 21, 2018
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Pollack said, “I want it to sink in, not forget about this. We can’t forget about it. All the school shootings, it doesn’t make sense. Fix it. Should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it. And I’m pissed because my daughter I’m not going to see again. She’s not here. She’s not here. She’s in whatever it is, king David cemetery.”
Trump only came to life when Pollack said something that sounded like praise to the president’s ear.
Crying Douglas student Samuel Zeif said, ” I don’t understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an A.R. I was reading today that a person 20 years old walked into a store and bought an ar-15 in five minutes with an expired I.D. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How are we not stopping this after Columbine and Sandy Hook? I’m sitting with a mother that lost her son. It is still happening. In Australia that was a shooting at a school in 1999. And after that they took a lot of ideas and they put legislation together — ideas and put legislation together and they stopped it. Can anyone here guess how many shootings there have been in the schools since then in Australia? Zero. We need to do something. And that is why we’re here. So let’s be strong for the fallen who don’t have a voice to speak anymore and let’s never let this happen again. Please, please.”
Trump’s response was to stay planted in his chair.
Trump wants so badly to be Obama, but he will never be Barack Obama, because while Trump sat stone-faced and possibly already tuned out, Obama would have been giving hugs and offering comfort.
If this “listening session” was supposed to prove that Trump is a president who cares about people and the issue of gun violence, it failed. Trump was unable to relate to the people in the room, and the result was a cold and detached president who could only brag about himself while pretending to listen to the pain of others.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
