Last week there was a big commotion about that NRA ad calling the President an ‘elitist hypocrite’ for sending his daughters to a school with armed guards while denying that same armed protection to kids around the country.
Most people focused on how disgusting it was to drag the President’s daughters into a political attack on the president or how the president actually wasn’t opposed to schools having armed guards and a bunch of other stuff. After all, the leadership of the NRA is one of the most rancid players in US politics. But it turns out the critics weren’t aiming high enough with the critiques.
Everyone basically took it for granted that it must be true that Sidwell Friends School, the school in question, has armed guards. After all, the President’s daughters go there, as do the kids of a lot of other high profile people in DC. So it does seem sort of plausible. And why would they say it if it weren’t true? Famous last words.
But it turns out the whole thing was a lie. Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post’s factchecker who I’ve frequently criticized on other matters, picked up the phone and called Sidwell and they emphatically deny the claim. According to Ellis Turner, Associate head of Sidwell Friends, “Sidwell Friends security officers do not carry guns.”
Obviously, the President’s daughters have very high powered and armed Secret Service protection, which is a statutory requirement and the need for which is obvious to every thinking person. But the school itself does not have armed guards.
