During a visit to the White House on Tuesday, President Trump pushed the parents of a British teen who was killed in a crash to meet with the American woman involved in the incident.
During an interview with “CBS This Morning,” the parents of British teenager Harry Dunn said they felt ambushed by the experience.
Dunn was killed in a car crash in the UK in August. British authorities identified Anne Sacoolas, the 42-year-old wife of a U.S. government official, as the person responsible in the crash. Sacoolas was allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road at the time. Under diplomatic immunity laws, Sacoolas was allowed to leave the U.K. and return to the U.S. without legal repercussions.
The parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, have been touring the U.S. doing media interviews and attempting to raise awareness about the circumstances surrounding their son’s death. The parents said they’d like to see Sacoolas voluntarily return to the U.K. and take responsibility for her wrongdoings.
Ahead of their meeting with Trump, the parents said they were only told that a “senior official” wanted to meet with them and that they were not expecting to meet Trump. According to Charles and Dunn, Trump told them multiple times throughout the meeting that the woman involved in the crash was in the building and willing to meet.
“Wrong setting. We’ve said all along that we are willing to meet her, we are still willing to meet her, but it needs to be on U.K. soil,” Charles said. “To be thrown into a room together with no prior warning, that’s not good for her mental health, it’s certainly not good for ours.”
"We've said all along that we are willing to meet her, we are still willing to meet her, but it needs to be on U.K. soil… to be thrown into a room together with no prior warning, that's not good for her mental health, it's certainly not good for ours." — Charlotte Charles pic.twitter.com/4Nh6giKTLW
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) October 16, 2019
Dunn said he felt pressured by Trump to meet with Sacoolas — “he did ask two or three times,” he said — in order to “get some ‘healing,’ or something like that.” But the two “stuck to our guns,” and denied the offer, Dunn said.
Charles said Trump “absolutely agreed” when she told him it wasn’t right that Sacoolas was allowed to escape justice.
“She needs to come back and face the justice system,” Charles said. “She needs to do this for herself, for us, she needs to do this for her children. Set a good example for her children.”
"She needs to come back and face the justice system. She needs to do this for herself, for us, she needs do this for her children, set a good example to her children… stand up to your mistakes. Take ownership of them." — Harry Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles pic.twitter.com/ViNKsk417Z
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) October 16, 2019
According to new reporting from the Washington Post, it was Trump’s idea to put the parents and Sacoolas in the same room. However, during a pool spray with the Italian president on Wednesday, Trump said that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked him to make the arrangements.
“I spoke with Boris, he asked me if I’d do that and I did it. Unfortunately– they wanted to meet with her and unfortunately, when we had every body together they decided not to meet,” Trump said. “Perhaps they had lawyers involved by that time. I don’t know exactly. I know the people were lovely. They were very nice and they were, you know, desperately sad.”
Trump says he thought the parents of the British teen wanted to meet with the woman involved in his death, says Boris Johnson asked him to arrange pic.twitter.com/QZPPEG1dIp
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 16, 2019
