White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Monday said President Biden agrees with the man who interrupted his gun control event earlier in the day that more needs to be done on the issue.
Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was murdered in the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting in 2018 started shouting during a speech Biden gave Monday to commemorate the passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Security escorted him out, even as Biden attempted to engage with the man.
Jean-Pierre also said that Biden understands what Oliver is feeling. Biden’s first wife, infant daughter and adult son have all died during his life.
“Our hearts go out to Manuel Oliver who has suffered a deep, deep loss,” she said. “The president met with him earlier today before the event. And as you know, the president understands what loss feels like.”
Before the Monday event in the White House’s South Lawn, Oliver tweeted his disapproval that the White House was effectively celebrating a very incremental piece of gun legislation.
“The word CELEBRATION has no space in a society that saw 19 kids massacred just a month ago,” he said. “‘Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.’ Not me, not Joaquin.”
Though his full comments were not clear, Oliver could be heard saying, “You have to do more than that,” before he was escorted out of the event.
“The president agrees with him. He agrees we need to do more,” Jean-Pierre said Monday on the substance of Oliver’s comments. “That’s why in his speech, he called on Congress to pass legislation that would ban assault weapons… high capacity magazines, strengthen background checks and enact safe storage laws.”
Jean-Pierre added: “He knows and understand that he is frustrated and he is hurting, and rightfully so, his life was upended when gun violence took his son.”
This is an excerpt from Fox News.
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