After the grieving dad demanded that the White House take more steps to reduce gun crime, President Biden lashed out at the father of a school shooting victim on Monday.
“Sit down!,” during a South Lawn celebration of the bipartisan firearms policy legislation that Biden signed last month, Biden remarked, “You’ll hear what I have to say,” as Manuel Oliver is shouting over him.
“You have to do more than this! You have to open an office in the White House! “, shouted Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin was slain in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Oliver said, “I’ve been trying to tell you this for years and years!” as the audience cheered.
Biden rebuffed Oliver and said, “We have one. Let me finish my comments,” before hastily adding, “Let him talk, let him talk.”
“Make no mistake about it, this legislation is real progress, but more has to be done,” the president said as Oliver was led away from the event.
At a press briefing this afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre disclosed that Biden had seen Oliver earlier today before the event and that he agreed with him to do more.
Jean-Pierre claimed to not know what specifically Biden and Oliver talked about and declined to say whether Biden would develop a new viewpoint on gun regulation.
Oliver spoke at a news conference hosted by the pro-gun control organization Guns Down America hours after the lawn event, together with other survivors of mass shootings and relatives of victims.
Oliver expressed his displeasure with the celebration of the new law, which includes more thorough background checks for prospective gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21, in a tweet the morning of the celebration.
