Biden orders flags to half-staff
WASHINGTON - President Biden on Tuesday ordered that the flags at the White House, federal buildings and military posts be flown at half-staff for the victims of a deadly shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The White House issued the proclamation Tuesday evening, hours after news broke of the shooting, which left at least 15 dead. Biden ordered the flags be flown at half-staff through Saturday at the White House, public buildings, military installations, and embassies and consular offices abroad ‘as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence.’
Biden, who the White House said was briefed on the shooting while flying back from a trip to Asia, is scheduled to deliver remarks on the mass shooting later Tuesday evening after he returns.
“His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that 14 students and one teacher were shot and killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday, when a gunman opened fire in the school. The gunman, whom Abbott identified at 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, is said to have been killed.
It’s the second mass shooting in less than two weeks that Biden has addressed. Days before departing the White House for Asia, Biden travelled to Buffalo, to meet with families affected by the mass shooting at a grocery store that police have labelled a racist hate crime. That shooting left 10 people dead.
TEXAS - This is the moment Texas Senator Ted Cruz stormed out of an interview after being asked why school mass shootings ‘only happen in America’ during a vigil for victims of the Robb Elementary School massacre.
Republican Senator Cruz had joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott to be with hundreds of tearful relatives and friends mourning loved ones killed in the shooting, which is the worst school massacre since Sandy Hook in 2012.
Nineteen children and two of their teachers at Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas, were murdered on Tuesday by 18-year-old Salvador