Q&A from Monday’s White House press briefing
week, David Bossie, a long-term informal adviser to Trump, told the Review-journal, “I don’t believe the age is going to end up changing.”
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican who serves as chairman of the National Governors Association, responded positively to Trump’s remarks about “hardening” schools to make them safer.
“I think I speak for all the governors of the United States of America that we are here to solve this problem once and for all,” Sandoval said. “You are right. We need to take action. The status quo is not acceptable.”
Sandoval recommended broadening the scope of FBI background checks at the state level so that states like Nevada would have to report information on mental health problems.
Inslee challenges president
Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott also supported Trump’s emphasis
Q. When the president said earlier today that he would have run into the school, was he suggesting that he could have saved the day down in Parkland?
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders: I think he was just stating that, as a leader, he would have stepped in and hopefully been able to help, as a number of the individuals that were in the school — the coach and other adults, and even a lot of the students — stepped up and helped protect other students. I think the point he was making is that he would have wanted to have played a role in that as well.
on “hardening” schools, but Washington state’s Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, pointedly challenged the president.
Inslee noted that Trump’s trial balloon suggested arming as many as 20 percent of teachers. “Whatever percentage it is, speaking as a grandfather, speaking as the governor of the state of Washington, I have listened to the people who would be affected by that,” Inslee told Trump.
Biology teachers, first-grade teachers who don’t want to be “pistol-packing” and law enforcement officials have voiced misgivings to him, Inslee said.
He concluded, “I suggest we need a little less tweeting here, a little more listening, and let’s just take that off the table and move forward.”
Later in the day Sandoval told reporters, “I don’t essentially disagree with Gov. Inslee.” Sandoval agreed educators should be educating and not worried about possessing a gun, but he suggested it was fair “to talk about” arming school personnel with military or other training.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal. com or 202-662-7391. Follow @ Debrajsaunders on Twitter. Reviewjournal staff writer Gary Martin contributed to this report.