Trump Needed a Cheat Sheet in Order to Show Sympathy for Mass-Shooting Survivors
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President Donald Trump's response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has been roundly criticized, not least by the survivors themselves. Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have slammed the President's remarks and tweets in the aftermath, including one that derailed the conversation back to the topic of Russian collusion and another that appeared to blame the students themselves. So it comes as no surprise that Trump might want to smooth things over by inviting a group of Parkland survivors and parents to the White House for a "listening session." If his intention was to appear more empathetic, though, he probably should have kept his cards closer to his chest.
On Wednesday a photographer snapped a closeup of a cue card in Trump's hands that appeared to list reminders for things to say as he listened to the survivors' testimony. The first one isn't too bad. It reads, "What would you most want me to know about your experience?" A little rudimentary, perhaps, but specific enough that perhaps the President would need some nudging to remember it. The second, “What can we do to make you feel safe?” also isn't an awful reminder to have, and three and four inquire specifically about suggestions for resources and policy changes. Makes sense. The last one, however, is, well, very bad. It says, "I hear you." As in the most basic expression of empathy one can make when listening to people who watched their classmates die.
According to The Guardian, Trump did not appear to actually need the cue card, nor did he use any of its phrases. Still, that a communications aide somewhere thought the president of the United States would need a reminder to show empathy while talking to school shooting survivors is, at best, laughable and, at worst, terrifying.
