TRUMP CALLS OUT FBI FOR FLA. FAILURE
WASHINGTON — President Trump has criticized the FBI after the agency disclosed that it failed to follow up on a detailed warning about the 19-year-old gunman who is charged with killing 17 people and wounding a dozen others at a Florida high school on Wednesday.
“Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable,” Trump tweeted on Saturday night.
A “person close to Nikolas Cruz” contacted the FBI’s public access tipline on Jan. 5 to “report concerns about him,” the FBI said in a statement Friday. The caller provided information about “Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” the statement said.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the FBI’s failure was “unacceptable” and called for the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn’t going to cut it,” Scott said in a statement. “The FBI director needs to resign.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he’s initiated a Justice Department review of how the FBI acted. “It is now clear that the warning signs were there and tips to the FBI were missed. We see the tragic consequences of those failures,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida focused their anger at Trump yesterday, contending that his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive.
“You’re the president. You’re supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us,” said David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“How dare you,” he added. Hogg was responding to Trump’s tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn’t passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI’s failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous, while bemoaning the bureau’s focus on Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
The White House said the president would hold a “listening session” with unspecified students on Wednesday and meet with state and local security officials Thursday.