As I noted yesterday, early reports of mass shootings are subject to the fog of war. Initial details are incomplete or wrong. We already have some substantial revisions to what happened when the shooter initially entered the school. As I noted, the first reports suggested that the gunman had shot his way past three officers — one school police force officer and two municipal police officers. The picture now looks significantly different — though the overall picture, I would argue, is much the same.
According to the latest reports, a school security officer exchanged gun fire with the shooter prior to the shooter entering the school. The two municipal police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter once he was already in the school but — apparently — before he had actually begun shooting kids. They apparently felt they were outgunned. So they called in backup.
Here is the part of the story that is new and deeply disturbing. Apparently police on the scene waited for a significant period of time — like tens of minutes — while parents outside the schools begged them to go in and kill the shooter. Parents even brainstormed about whether they should go in and rush the shooter themselves since the mass shooting was unfolding as everyone waited outside.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Let’s Make Schools Supermax Prisons
After an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas left 19 kids and two adults dead, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (who’s speaking at the NRA’s convention this Friday) argued yesterday that the problem isn’t that there are too many guns out there, it’s that schools have too many doors–more specifically, more than one door.
Schools need to “harden” by “having one door that goes in and out of the school [and] having armed police officers at that one door,” Cruz told reporters during his visit to Uvalde.
The GOP senator pushed his “solution” againon Fox News later on Wednesday night.
Cruz made this point several times yesterday and retweeted clips of himself making it, so this wasn’t just some throwaway idea the GOP senator had. This is a spin he’s fully leaning into.
We can and MUST do more to protect our kids.
To increase security at our schools. And I’ve REPEATEDLY introduced legislation to do just that. https://t.co/IJC8Bd1QfA
Trump Still Speaking At NRA Meeting, Where Guns Will Be Banned
The ex-president announced on his dollar store Twitter social media site yesterday that he will still attend the NRA’s convention in Houston this weekend even after the Texas elementary school shooting, invoking the same bogus talking point conservatives whip out whenever there’s a mass shooting: Don’t make this about politics!
It’s a classic: “America needs real solutions and real leadership in this moment, not politicians and partisanship,” Trump wrote.
The NRA will be banning firearms in the area for Trump’s safety, per the event’s website.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wouldn’t say yesterday if he’s cancelling his scheduled appearance at the convention. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s (R) office confirmed to TPM that she’s still going.
That Time When Rubio’s Nightmare Gun Ban Hypothetical Was Met With Applause
Let’s take a look back at this moment during Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’s town hall several days after the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida:
Jan. 6 Panel Was Told Trump Expressed Support For ‘Hang Pence’ Chants
The House Jan. 6 Committee has heard testimony recounting that then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told colleagues in the White House that Trump had reacted approvingly to the Capitol insurrectionists’ “Hang Pence!” cries as they stormed the building, according to the New York Times, Politico and the Washington Post.
Meadows told the colleagues that Trump had made a remark about how maybe Pence should be hung, at least one witness reportedly told the committee.
More than one person reportedly told the Jan. 6 committee about what Meadows said.
House Sergeant At Arms Says Lawmakers Shouldn’t Carry Guns
William Walker, the House’s sergeant at arms, told House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in a letter on Wednesday that he believed “no one” should be carrying guns around the Capitol except for law enforcement, the Secret Service and other security detail–categories that don’t include Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Andy Harris (R-MD).
GOP Pennsylvania Senate Race Heads To Recount
As expected, the razor-thin margin between Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidates Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick (we’re talking about a lead of less than 1,000 votes for the Trump-backed Oz) triggered an automatic recount on Wednesday, just over a week after the primary on May 17.
Counties will be required to start their recounts by June 1 and report their tallies by noon on June 8, Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman (D) announced.
Good news for McCormick: Counties will also be required to segregate and tabulate undated and incorrectly dated ballots, which McCormick’s been pushing for in the lawsuit he filed earlier this week (which the Republican National Committee and Pennsylvania GOP really don’t like at all!).
A Glimpse Into Sinema’s Megamind
Like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) is refusing to blow up or even reform the filibuster to allow the Senate to pass gun laws that would prevent another mass school shooting like the one in Texas this week.
“I don’t think that D.C. solutions are realistic here,” Sinema told reporters on Wednesday. Yeah, what kind of naive fool elects someone to D.C. and expects them to make it possible to pass laws??? Get real, kids!
Looking Back At NRA’s Reaction To Columbine
In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, it’s worth revisiting the secret recordings NPR published last year of NRA execs’ private PR strategy meetings after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.
The state of Michigan is in the midst of unwinding the biggest signature forgery scandal in recent memory: The state Bureau of Elections determined earlier this week that half of the 10 Republicans running for governor had submitted thousands of fraudulent signatures in their effort to qualify to appear on the Aug. 2 primary ballot.
Just a few days after gunmen entered Columbine High School in 1999 and murdered 13 students and adults, the National Rifle Association found itself in a situation darkly similar to what we’re seeing play out this week.
At the time, the gun group had plans to hold their annual national gathering just a few days after the school shooting that rocked a generation of Americans. And it was set to take place a few miles away from the scene of the massacre, in Denver.
As is the case today, NRA leaders ultimately opted to carry on with the planned convention, concerned that canceling it would rob officials of the opportunity to own the organization’s response to the tragedy, which was the deadliest school shooting during that decade in America.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s (R) office confirmed to TPM on Wednesday that the GOP governor is still planning to speak at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston on Friday amid mounting outrage surrounding the event in the wake of the tragic shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), who is running for Texas governor, was just removed from a press conference in Texas for protesting and confronting Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on gun laws a day after the tragic shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
After video emerged on Jan. 6 showing Capitol rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” Donald Trump said something to the effect of, maybe Mr. Pence should be hung, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The report was based on accounts of testimony to the congressional Jan. 6 committee.
The contrast between Arizona’s two senators, both Democrats, could not be starker in their response Wednesday to passing legislation after a shooting at a Texas elementary school left at least 21 dead.
