US President Trump avoids gun control debate during visit to Florida school massacre survivors
People affected by the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have angrily called for firm action to prevent future assaults
President Donald Trump made a grim trip to a Florida community reeling from a deadly school shooting, meeting privately with victims and cheering the heroics of first responders.
But he extended few public words of consolation to those in deep mourning, nor did Trump address the debate over gun violence that has raged since a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 and injured 14 others.
Two days after the shooting, and amid outrage over the FBI’s failure to act on two previous tips, Trump visited Broward Health North Hospital on Friday where he saw two victims and praised the doctors and nurses for their “incredible” job. With his wife Melania, he also paid his respects to law enforcement officials in Fort Lauderdale, telling officers he hoped they were “getting the credit” they deserved.
“I was at the hospital with a lot of parents and they are really thankful for the job you’ve done,” Trump said at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, where he was joined by Governor Rick Scott, Senator Marco Rubio and other Florida officials. He added that the young victims were in “really great shape” considering what they have been through.
Never a natural at consolation, the president seemed more at ease extending hearty thanks to first responders, marvelling at the speed with which they rushed the wounded to the hospital and quipping that they deserved a raise. He had less to say to the grief and sorrow gripping a shocked community and nation after the deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an junior school in Newtown, Connecticut.