During Monday’s event marking the passage of the bipartisan gun bill, President Biden grew frustrated with Parkland parent Manuel Oliver who lost his son during the 2018 shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. Oliver was in the crowd when he stood up to say something to Biden and was quickly escorted out of the event.
Oliver’s comments are still not known, but a tweet before the event hints at what he may have been thinking.
“The word CELEBRATION has no space in a society that saw 19 kids massacred just a month ago,” Oliver tweeted before the event. “‘Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.’ Not me, not Joaquin.”
From Fox News:
Biden paused during his remarks when Oliver’s interruption began and attempted to get him to relent before the man was removed.
“Sit down you’ll hear what I have to say,” Biden said.
“We have one. Let me finish my comment. Let me talk,” Biden added, before the event continued after a brief, but rare, interruption on White House grounds.
Hecklers or protestors during a presidential speech are rare due to strict security measures at the White House. A protestor in 2006 interrupted an event with former President George W. Bush and then-Chinese President Hu Jintao, earning her criminal charges.
Watch the clip below:
President Joe Biden shut down a protester shouting during his speech addressing the bipartisan gun act passed by Congress last month. The protester was Manuel Oliver, father of a victim of the 2018 Parkland school shooting. pic.twitter.com/DI9LDt3qt5
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 11, 2022
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