Las Vegas, New York, Sutherland Springs, Parkland, and now Pittsburgh, these victims and others will remain in my memory forever. As president I would express the compassion of the entire nation to these families and respect their privacy in allowing time to bury their dead. If later, these families and this community wish me to come to Pittsburgh, I would do so.
And it is never enough. To the best of my knowledge, our nation has still not banned bump stocks which increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons repeatedly used in these tragedies, and we still don’t have universal background checks. Minimal steps.
There are troubled and unbalanced individuals in every society. These persons can be easily suggestable, attracted to conspiracy theories and sometimes prone to violence. The inflamatory rhetoric of division and hatred can push these people over the edge. Every elected person needs to understand the power of his/her words and the responsibility that is part of leadership.
Fear is a powerful political weapon. Two men greater than myself have reminded us that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Which brings me to the issue of immigration and the Caravan. Conditions are bad, life threatening, in some central American countries but we cannot wholesale allow these people to come to the United States. We just can’t. But for the most part they are good people who are looking for a better way of life. They are not rapists, terrorists or invaders. The Caravan is still about 1000 miles from our border and I appreciate the efforts of the Mexican government to prevent this group of people from arriving en-mass at our border. Americans should remember that this sort of thing happens seasonally when the weather allows travel by foot through the mountains and deserts of Mexico.
Probably it would be well here to restate my general position on immigration.
There have been a lot of deportations and there will continue to be deportations until we find a way to prevent people from overstaying their visas or entering the country illegally. However some actions currently being taken are exceedingly cruel. We should not be breaking up working families where some immediate family members are US citizens. People who were brought here as children (DACA) should be allowed to stay and become naturalized citizens.
We should not be deporting refugees who have been here a long time and who previous president have allowed to stay.
I ask my fellow Americans to consider that some western states were part of Mexico once. Mexican-American culture is very strong in these places. It is similar to those of French or Cajun roots in Louisianna, Dutch-German people in Pennsylvania or Scandinavians in Minnesota. We are a nation descended from immigrants …. from all the lands on earth we come. So many have died for our freedoms and for the belief that all men are created equal.
Lastly, a free press is essential to the function of democracy. It is no one’s enemy. I recommend all Americans take time to get news from multiple sources. As President, when I need to explain my policies or decisions to the American people, I will not tweet. I will look you in the eye with a news conference, interview or press release. I will trust the press to mostly get it right and I will trust the American people to think and search for truth.
