President Obama’s Friday trip to Roseburg, Ore., will “not be about politics,” and instead is designed to let Obama spend time with the families of those who were killed during last week’s shooting at a community college, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday.
“[I]n this instance… on Friday morning the trip would not be about politics, but that trip would be about merely consoling the families of those who were so profoundly affecting that tragedy,” spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“I don’t anticipate much of a public appearance from the president” Earnest said about Obama’s trip. It will take place just days after nine people were shot and killed at Umpqua Community College by a disturbed 26-year-old student.
In his first remarks about the tragedy that unfolded on Thursday, President Obama said he would “politicize” the issue in hopes of building public momentum for new gun-control legislation that would force Congress to act.
“And, of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, ‘Obama politicized this issue,'” Obama said Thursday evening. “Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together — to the body politic.”
In response to the killer’s mother taking to the Internet to discuss her personal gun collection and her son’s mental health problems, Earnest declined to comment. But he did say generally that “the president’s view is there are some common sense things that can be done to keep guns away from those who shouldn’t have them.”
