President Trump will be on site of the mass shooting in Parkland Florida
Thursday President Donald Trump will visit Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Friday. The site of Wednesday’s massacre of students and staffers, killing 17 and injuring several others.
“We comfort the grieving and the wounded and we hurt for the entire community in Parkland, Florida,” Trump said as he spoke to the nation from the White House in his first public appearance since the shooting.
“We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health,” he said, without directly mentioning the controversial debate over gun control.
Trump also said he planned to help coordinate the federal response, and would work to help the nation tackle “the difficult issue of mental health.”
The president made no reference to the issue of gun control during his roughly 7-minute remarks, a stark contrast from the press conference Florida state and local officials held immediately preceding his remarks, where officials urged policy action on the issue.
It is not yet known who will join the president at Parkland, there will be local officials on hand. Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio have not yet committed to join the president.
When President Trump visits Parkland, Florida he will be headed into a part of the state that he lost big in the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton got 553,320 votes to Trump’s 260,951 and clearly he will be in hostile territory.
That said don’t expect any open confrontation at the get together on Friday.
Trump’s White House canceled its briefing on Wednesday, citing the shooting, and did not have one scheduled Thursday. Trump has addressed the nation after mass shootings, delivering somber remarks from the White House the morning after a gunman killed 58 people at a music festival in Las Vegas.