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Trump, Visiting Las Vegas Hospital, Pays Tribute to Wounded and Doctors With Las Vegas Shooting Victims, Trump Assumes Role of Consoler in Chief
(35 minutes later)
LAS VEGAS — President Trump paid tribute to the professionalism of the doctors who treated victims of the Las Vegas shooting, saying that meeting with the patients at one hospital made him “proud to be an American.” LAS VEGAS — President Trump comforted the victims of Sunday’s deadly mass shooting and paid tribute to those who tended to them, taking up on Wednesday a harrowing duty of the modern presidency that has nevertheless become numbing in its regularity.
The president said he met with some “absolutely terribly wounded” patients and hailed their bravery during the horrific attack Sunday night. He said many of those he met with were wounded as they sought to help others amid the hail of bullets from a gunman in a nearby hotel. After touring the wreckage of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico a day earlier, a somber Mr. Trump headed to Las Vegas, where 58 people were slain by an assailant raining bullets into a crowded country music festival from the blown-out window of his hotel room high above them.
“I think the only message I can say is that we are with you 100 percent,” Mr. Trump told reporters in brief remarks before heading to a meeting with law enforcement officials in Las Vegas. “What I saw today is just an incredible tribute to professionalism, and what they have done is incredible. And you never want to see it again,” Mr. Trump said, after spending about an hour talking to patients in the trauma center of a Las Vegas hospital that received 100 people in the hours after the shooting.
“I invited a lot of them to the White House,” he said. “I said, ‘If you’re ever in Washington, come on over to the Oval Office.’” “We met patients that were absolutely, terribly wounded,” the president added. “And the doctors, the nurses, all of the people at hospital, have done a job that is indescribable.”
Mr. Trump declined to answer a question about gun control, saying only that “we’re not going to talk about that today.” He repeatedly praised the work of the medical staff at the city’s hospitals, describing their work as an “incredible tribute to professionalism.” In a four-hour visit to this bereaved city, Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania, also toured the operations center of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which coordinated the response to the shooting. On one wall hung a poster with an aerial view of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, where the gunman perched, and the site of the music festival below it.
Later, Mr. Trump met with emergency workers, including Joseph Lombardo, the Las Vegas sheriff who has become a familiar face on television since the shootings. Mr. Lombardo told the president that “every single person in here” had helped to save lives. “This is a rough time,” Mr. Trump told the assembled police officers, some of whom risked gunfire to direct the concertgoers toward safety. “But if you didn’t get up there so quickly, it could have been worse — a lot worse.”
“You showed the world and the world was watching,” Mr. Trump said. “You showed the world what professionalism is all about. You should be very proud, sheriff.” The president referred to the gunman, Stephen C. Paddock, who killed himself in his hotel room before the police burst in on him, as “a sick, demented man.” He asked Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of Clark County if investigators had any new information on Mr. Paddock. The sheriff demurred in front of cameras, but said that the police were following several leads.
The president called the gunman a “sick” and “demented” man and expressed optimism that law enforcement officials would find out more about what motivated the attack. “There might be something there,” Mr. Trump replied. “Wires are screwed up, but there might be something there.”
Mr. Trump traveled here on Wednesday to comfort victims of Sunday’s deadly mass shooting and salute those who tended to them, taking up a harrowing duty of the modern presidency that has nevertheless become numbing in its regularity. As the president was flying to Las Vegas, tensions inside his administration erupted back in Washington. On Air Force One, televisions displayed Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson’s statement denying an NBC News report that he had been talked out of resigning by Vice President Mike Pence, and refusing to comment on whether he had called Mr. Trump a “moron.”
A day after he visited hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump traded a natural disaster for one inflicted by man: 58 people killed by an assailant raining bullets into a crowded country music festival from the window of his hotel room high above them. At the hospital, the president dismissed the report as “fake news” and a “made-up story.” He said he was honored by Mr. Tillerson’s statement, adding, “I have total confidence in Rex.” Earlier, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, declined to say whether the secretary of state had been instructed by the White House to deliver his statement.
“It’s a very sad thing,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he left the White House in the morning. “We’re going to pay our respects and to see the police who have done really a fantastic job in a very short time.” Mr. Trump has been uncharacteristically subdued about the Las Vegas shooting, one of the deadliest in American history. He has tweeted little about it and deflected questions about the killer’s motives, in contrast to previous mass shootings, which have drawn quick, furious reactions from him, particularly when the attackers were Muslim.
The president said the authorities were learning more about the gunman, Stephen C. Paddock, who killed himself in his room before police burst in, but he did not share any details. On Monday, he referred to Mr. Paddock as “a sick man, a demented man.” With no evidence yet linking Mr. Paddock to militant Islamic groups, the Las Vegas attack appears unlike those in Orlando, Fla., or San Bernardino, Calif., both of which Mr. Trump seized on, as a candidate, to justify his ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries. He also used those earlier shootings to highlight the scourge of what he labels “radical Islamic terror.”
As the president was flying to Las Vegas, tensions inside his administration erupted back in Washington. On Air Force One, TV screens carried Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson’s refusal to comment on an NBC News report that he had called Mr. Trump a “moron.” He also insisted that he had never considered resigning. For Mr. Trump, the political subtext of Las Vegas has more to do with gun control laws, which he campaigned against in 2016. On Wednesday, the president said this was not the moment to talk about new legislation, but a day earlier, he said, “We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”
The president, tweeting from the plane, derided the report as “#FakeNews.” Afterward, the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told reporters that Mr. Trump still had confidence in Mr. Tillerson. That appeared to open the door at least a crack — enough to rattle opponents of gun control. Breitbart News, the far-right website run by Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, said that his political base would not tolerate the president softening his line on gun rights.
“As we’ve said many times before,” Ms. Sanders said, “if the president does not have confidence in somebody, they will no longer remain in their position.” She declined to say whether Mr. Tillerson had been instructed by the White House to deliver his statement. Mr. Bannon had told colleagues that he planned to keep Mr. Trump “under a microscope” while he was in Las Vegas to make sure he did not signal any further flexibility on gun legislation.
Mr. Trump has been uncharacteristically subdued about the Las Vegas shooting, one of the deadliest in American history. He has tweeted little about it and deflected questions about the killer’s motives, in contrast with previous mass shootings, which have drawn quick, furious reactions from him, particularly when the perpetrators were Muslim. Mr. Trump remained on familiar ground on Wednesday by focusing on the police and other law enforcement officials, whom he has repeatedly praised for quickly tracking down Mr. Paddock in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay.
With no evidence linking Mr. Paddock to militant Islamic groups, this crime appears unlike the shootings in Orlando, Fla., or San Bernardino, Calif., both of which Mr. Trump seized on, as a candidate, to justify his ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and to highlight the scourge of what he labels “radical Islamic terrorism.” But he also played what, for him, is a less comfortable role: that of the nation’s chief consoler. In reacting to other tragedies, Mr. Trump has struggled to convey empathy — defaulting to anger at the assailants, or, as in the case of the recent hurricanes, praise for his government’s response.
For Mr. Trump, the political subtext of Las Vegas has more to do with gun laws, which he campaigned against in 2016. On Tuesday, the president said this was not the moment to talk about new legislation, but he added, “We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.” On Tuesday in Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump delivered huzzahs for the military, his cabinet and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But his interactions with storm survivors were an awkward mix of campaign-style high jinks. At one point, the president tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd, and he also told officials of Puerto Rico’s debt-ridden administration that they have “thrown our budget a little out of whack.”
That appeared to open the door at least a crack, which was enough to rattle opponents of gun control. Breitbart News, the far-right website run by Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, said his political base would not tolerate the president softening his defense of gun rights. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump stuck to a presidential script in speaking about Las Vegas. Standing alongside Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada and other state and local officials, Mr. Trump recounted stories of individual heroism by police officers. He appealed to the nation, as he had in a statement on Monday, to seek love over hate.
Mr. Bannon has told colleagues that he planned to keep Mr. Trump “under a microscope” while he was in Las Vegas to make sure he does not signal any further flexibility on gun legislation. “Our souls are stricken with grief for every American who lost a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a son or a daughter,” Mr. Trump declared, speaking from a prepared text. But, he added, “We cannot be defined by the evil that threatens us or the violence that incites such terror.”
Mr. Trump would prefer to keep the focus Wednesday on the police and other law enforcement officials, whom he has repeatedly praised for quickly tracking down the gunman in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. That is familiar, comfortable ground for him. “In the darkest moments,” he said, “what shines most brightly is the goodness that thrives in the hearts of our people.”
But he will also have to play a less comfortable role: that of the nation’s chief consoler. In reacting to other tragedies, Mr. Trump has struggled to convey empathy — defaulting to anger at the perpetrators, or, as in the case of the recent hurricanes, praise for his government’s response. It is not a reflexive message for a president who has often exploited divisions in American society. After previous shootings, Mr. Trump zeroed in on the role of Muslims, or accused opponents like Hillary Clinton of advocating wide-open immigration policies.
On Tuesday, in Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump delivered cheers for the military, his cabinet and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But his interactions with those who survived the storm were an awkward mix of campaign-style high jinks — at one point, he tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd — and ill-timed attempts at humor, as when he told officials of Puerto Rico’s debt-ridden administration that “you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack.” Still, presidents with different politics and temperaments have also struggled with how to respond to mass shootings. Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, wept when he spoke of the 2012 slaughter of children at a Connecticut elementary school, and he sang the hymn “Amazing Grace” when he eulogized the black parishioners gunned down in 2015 in a church in Charleston, S.C.
So far, Mr. Trump has stuck to a presidential script in speaking about Las Vegas. On Monday, in an address to the nation, he called for Americans to seek unity and peace over division. After Congress failed to enact legislation in the aftermath of the shootings in Newtown, Conn., Mr. Obama shed tears again — this time in anger at a political establishment he said was in thrall to the National Rifle Association.
“Our unity cannot be shattered by evil,” the president said, reading from a teleprompter. “Our bonds cannot be broken by violence. And though we feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that defines us today — and always will, forever.” But late in his presidency, after police officers were shot in Dallas, a weary Mr. Obama spoke of feeling that he had run out of words to adequately express either sorrow or resolve in the face of such relentless violence.
It is not a natural message, coming from a president who has often exploited divisions in American society, even in the wake of shootings, when he has zeroed in on the role of Muslims or accused opponents like Hillary Clinton of advocating wide-open immigration policies. If anything, gun control laws currently are even more elusive. That leaves Mr. Trump with the unenviable prospect of more hospital visits and memorial services.
Even presidents with different politics and temperaments have struggled with how to respond to these shootings. Mr. Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, wept when he spoke of the slaughter of children at a Connecticut schoolhouse, and sang the hymn “Amazing Grace” when he eulogized the black parishioners gunned down in a church in Charleston, S.C.
After Congress failed to enact legislation after the Sandy Hook, Conn., shooting, Mr. Obama shed tears again — this time in anger at a political establishment he said was in thrall to the National Rifle Association.
But late in his presidency, after police officers were shot in Dallas, a weary Mr. Obama spoke of feeling as though he had run out of words to adequately express either sorrow or resolve in the face of such relentless violence.