October 20: On This Day In 2021
Two human beings.
Both leaders of the United States.
Both faced a uniquely American horror: A school shooting.
Their responses could not have been more different.
This remarkable video, created by the Washington Post, compares the 2012 response of President Obama to the Sandy Hook school massacre with the 2018 response of President Trump to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school massacre.
One of those leaders is a kind, forceful, passionate man who then proposed legislation to reduce the risk of this kind of thing happening again.*
The other leader blamed everyone from the shooter's own classmates to the FBI to the Russia investigation for the school murders. (It didn't occur to him to blame, you know, the ready availability in this country of military-grade machine guns.) His spokesman said this president considered this shooting a "reprieve" from his scandal-plagued daily troubles.
Please do take a look.
It's 3+ minutes long.
OTDI 2021, the Parkland shooter plead guilty to all charges against him and was later sentenced to life in prison.
* Obama's plans to decrease gun violence in this country were blocked in the House by the GOP leadership there. If he's still the Speaker in 2025, Mike Johnson will continue to block sensible gun restrictions too.
On This Day In The Trump Administration: Two presidents respond to school shootings. Very different men.