President Trump praised an FBI official following the mass shooting at a Florida high school earlier this week, even though the agency has come under scrutiny for they way it handled tips about the shooter.
Trump met with law enforcement officials at the Broward Sheriff’s Office for a round table meeting on Friday in Fort Lauderdale after visiting victims of the attack and medical staff at Broward Health North Hospital.
The FBI agent initially expressed gratitude to Trump and Florida police.
“We’re happy to be a part of the team and lend a hand … thank you for all your support,” the agent said, according to the press pool report.
“Great job! Really great job,” Trump told an FBI agent in response.
The agent was unidentified in the press pool report, but a local ABC affiliate said Robert Lasky, FBI special agent in charge, was in the room.
The FBI has come under scrutiny after the shooting because the agency admitted the received tips about confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz in September and last month.
The comments were made in front of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who earlier on Friday called for FBI Director Christopher Wray to step down from his post after the agency did not follow protocol after receiving one of the tips.
Trump also praised Coconut Creek Police Officer Michael Leonard, who was in the room. Leonard was the officer who apprehended Cruz after the shooting.
“That was so modest, I would have told it much differently,” Trump joked. “I would have said without me, they never would have found him.”
Cruz, 19, had been previously expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he carried out the attack on Wednesday. He was apprehended by authorities and has confessed to the shooting, in which he used a semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle.
The shooting took the lives of 17 individuals and injured dozens more.
