WOW — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) challenges Trump to his face on his plan to arm teachers, tells him “we need to listen to educators and they should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat.”
Trump responds by crossing his arms and quickly changing topic pic.twitter.com/ikjXvJ56Mc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 26, 2018
In the days following the deadly shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, President Trump has picked up on a conservative talking point and suggested that teachers should be armed in order to prevent school shootings in the future. Trump again brought this point up at a White House meeting with governors on Monday (while claiming that he would have run into the building himself), but then a politician directly confronted Trump on his idea of arming teachers.
After calling gun-free zones an “invitation for these very sick people,” Trump said there needs to be “major retaliation” against school shooters so they don’t enter the schools, presumably saying that armed teachers would be a deterrent. Then Washington Governor Jay Inslee started to speak:
“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. I have listened to the biology teachers and they don’t want to do that in any percentage. I’ve listened to the first grade teachers who don’t want to be pistol-packing-first-grade teachers. I’ve listened to law enforcement who have said they don’t want to have to train teachers as law enforcement [agents] which takes about six months.”
By this point, Trump had folded his arms and pursed his lips and started shuffling a bit from side to side.
This was Trump's body language as Gov. Inslee told him educators aren't down with his plan to arm teachers pic.twitter.com/5OpGc6KIdD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 26, 2018
Inslee continued as Trump began to look elsewhere around the room:
“I just think that this is a circumstance where we have to listen. That educators should educate and they should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. Now, I understand you have suggested this and we suggest things sometimes then we listen to people about it and maybe they don’t look so good a little later. So I just suggest we need a little less tweeting here, a little more listening and let’s just take that off the table and move forward.”
Trump then went back on the mic and said, “We have a number of states that already do that,” although it wasn’t entirely clear what exactly he was referring to, before calling on Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who in the past has “joked” about shooting reporters.
(Via Fox News)