this feels to me like from his position, he s probably like, i m damned if i do, damned if i don t. i want to pay my respects to this community in pain, and yet i m being faulted for going. and if i didn t go, i would be faulted for not going. look, he s not being faulted for going. i think we all expect the president of the united states to play the role of consoler-in-chief when acts call for it. the reason he s being faulted is because everything he has said beforehand and everything he has said since makes this act seem like he s checking off a box and just rings hollow. when he continues to do things like fan the flames around the caravan, by sending 5,200 troops to the border. when he continues to use immigration as a political wedge. let s remember, it s precisely the caravan issue that triggered this gunman, this killer, against the jewish center. when he continues to do things like attack tom steyer. then this that he s doing is just checking off a box.
ago. finally, at around 9:00 a.m., president trump tweeted, 17 years since september 11th. that s it? that s all it said. 17 years since september 11th. there s a certain consoler-in-chief that politicians, especially presidents are called upon to do. i thought he did a fairly nice job in shanksville, pennsylvania, but left to his own devices, doesn t seem to get what people are looking for. yeah, he does other things, obviously, better than he does the consoler-in-chief role. what donald trump jr. was talking about was taking on joe scarborough for an op-ed that basically said what donald trump is doing to this country is worse than terrorism. to have that hit on 9/11 i don t care if you re a republican or democrat or what have you. i don t care if you share every single view that he espoused in that op-ed. it s totally inappropriate. and you know, whether you love donald trump jr., you hate donald trump jr., you hate this administration, i would hope we can all agree, that is sor
if you don t want to look at ronald reagan, look at bill clinton when he went to oklahoma city after the bombing. listen to his words. look at his face. look at his eyes. look at the real empathy. and look at george w. bush after 9/11. the fact of the matter is, we have been blessed in our country more often than not with presidents who understand that they are more than simply the head of government. that they are a spiritual leader, not in religious terms, but they represent the spirit of the united states. it does set the tone. and president trump, i m afraid, fred, has not shown that ability. in fact, this weekend his tweets were the opposite of what a consoler-in-chief should do. his tweets were that of a divider-in-chief. we appreciate your perspective. i ve been around a while, too, and remember all those moments that you just pointed out. and that certainly does help put things into perspective.
welcome back. i m david gura. trump struggles with consoler-in-chief role, that is a politico headline following the school shooting in florida. the president has had a tricky relationship with consoling the nation. we remember trump blaming both sides after the deadly violence in charlottesville, virginia, last year. there was this scene in puerto rico after the hurricane on that same trip, the president played down the death toll in puerto rico comparing it to that of hurricane katrina. since last week s attack in florida trump stayed silent on gun control. thank you very much. mr. president, why does this keep happening to america? do our gun laws need to be changed, mr. president? if you would have had somebody with a gun right here ben they walked in so you could have had bullets going in the other direction you wouldn t have had hundreds of people killed. joining me is charlie savage new york times national security reporter and msnbc
york now. you are standing right to the next man. it would be unimaginable to be less prepared than they were during katrina, but this situation is going the right way in terms of what they can do in terms of the capacity they re getting. what do you do as the capacity increases? that s what you re going to see down there, alisyn, is how they deal with the need. president trump went down there to express his concern and his promise that the federal government will be there to reassure the first responders and those who are struggling. how did he handle it? did he give the right message? did he show the empathy required of the consoler-in-chief? we ll discuss the take, the criticism and the fairness of it next. on the agile mkc. and the versatile midsize lincoln mkx. or go where summer takes you in the exhilarating mkz.