It was a somber President Trump who addressed the nation Monday morning from the White House. Several hours earlier, hundreds of people had been shot while attending a country music concert in Las Vegas. The gunman had fired down at the outdoor concert from a corner suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel.
“He brutally murdered more than 50 people, and wounded hundreds more,” said Trump. “It was an act of pure evil.”
This wasn’t the president’s first comment on the shooting—that happened via tweet earlier in the morning. “My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!” he said.
At the White House later that morning, Trump praised the local law enforcement and first responders and quoted Scripture. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit,” he said. Trump said he would order the American flag to be flown at half-staff and then asked Americans to “come together as one” and called “upon the bonds of citizenship, the ties of community, and the comfort of our common humanity.”
“Unity” was the message of the day from the White House. “In the days ahead, we will grieve as a nation, we will honor the memory of those lost as a nation, and we will come together, united as one nation, under God, and indivisible,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the start of her briefing Monday afternoon.
When pressed about whether President Trump had been prompted by the shooting to reconsider supporting restrictions on gun use, Sanders said it was the time for “consoling the survivors and mourning those we lost” before pointing out that there were a lot of facts still unknown.
“There is currently an open and ongoing law enforcement investigation. A motive is yet to be determined, and it would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don’t fully know all the facts or what took place last night,” she said.
During some midday remarks with the prime minister of Thailand, Trump noted that he would leaving for Las Vegas early Wednesday morning to see Nevada governor Brian Sandoval, the mayor of Las Vegas, and law enforcement officials. “It’s a very sad moment for me, for everybody,” Trump said.
Since then, Trump has been quiet, in public and on Twitter, about the shooting.
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Here’s a challenge to the “unity” effort: Days after picking a Twitter fight with Puerto Rican officials, President Trump is traveling to the stricken island Tuesday to survey the wreckage from Hurricane Marie and support emergency relief efforts.
“He will assure the people there that we are with them 100 percent today and for the long haul,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday. “Puerto Ricans have shown incredible resilience, and we are fully committed to helping them rebuild their lives.”
Sanders declined to answer whether the White House expected any tension with leaders such as San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, whom the president publicly accused of “very poor leadership” and being “nasty to Trump.”
“I expect the focus to be on the recovery efforts, which we’re fully committed to,” Sanders said. “The top priority for the federal government is certainly to protect the lives and the safety of those in affected areas, and provide life-sustaining services as we work together to rebuild their lives.”
The president and first lady will arrive in San Juan midday Tuesday, where they will receive a briefing on the hurricane relief efforts and meet with some of those affected by Maria. Trump will then travel to a large church in nearby Guaynabo. He will also meet with the governors of both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands before returning to Washington Tuesday evening.
Mark It Down—“We still strongly support putting diplomatic pressure on North Korea, which we’re continuing to do.” —Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, October 2, 2017
Feature of the Day—My colleague Chris Caldwell has a must-read in the new issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD on what last week’s German election results mean, both for Chancellor Angela Merkel and for the far-right party Alternative for Germany, which came in third place. Here’s an excerpt:
Read the whole thing here.
Kushner Email Watch—From Politico: “Hundreds of White House emails sent to third Kushner family account.”
A scouting scandal has hit the Atlanta Braves, prompting the team’s general manager to resign. According to the Associated Press, John Coppolella resigned from the job on Monday “after an investigation by Major League Baseball revealed serious rules violations in the international player market.” Coppolella’s international scouting chief also resigned.
The Trump administration on Monday endorsed a Republican House bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks.
“The Administration strongly supports H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and applauds the House of Representatives for continuing its efforts to secure critical pro-life protections,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.
The bill is likely to meet the same fate it met in 2015: passing the House before running aground in the Senate, where 60 votes would be required to pass it.
Song of the Day—“It’ll All Work Out” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
