A day after a gunman killed a sixth grade student and wounded five other people at Perry High School northwest of Des Moines, Donald Trump returned to the state at a campaign event and told residents that they “have to get over it.”
During his speech at Sioux Center, Iowa, the former president gave his thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families, emphasizing that “we’re really with you as much as anybody can be.” After stating the tragedy was “terrible” and “horrible,” Trump insisted: “We have to get over it. We have to move forward. We have to move forward.”
Afterwards, the ex-president quickly moved on to shout out the state senators endorsing him. His visit to Iowa arrives 10 days before the state’s caucuses.
Last April, Trump called school shootings a “spiritual problem” and not a “gun problem” during a National Rifle Association (NRA) — four days after a gunman killed five people in a Louisville, Kentucky, bank, and two weeks after a shooter killed six people, including three children, at a school in Nashville. After learning that the Nashville shooter was transgender, Trump and his allies pivoted to attacking medical care for transgender individuals, and during his NRA speech, the former president bashed Democrats for pushing for gun control.
On Friday, President Joe Biden delivered his first major election year campaign speech near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The president torched his predecessor and potential 2024 rival, calling Trump’s refusal to accept the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 a continued threat to American democracy.
“Trump exhausted every legal avenue available to him to overturn the election,” Biden told a crowd of supporters. “Every one. But the legal path just took Trump back to the truth: that I had won the election and he was a loser. Well, knowing how his mind works now, he had one act left. One desperate act available to him: the violence of Jan. 6.”
“The choice is clear,” Biden said, reiterating that the 2024 election will be about preserving democracy. “Donald Trump’s campaign is about him. Not America. Not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power.”
During a a town hall in Davenport, Iowa last month, Trump said he wanted to be a dictator if re-elected but only on “Day One” in office. He later doubled down on his sentiment at the New York Young Republican Club’s 111th Annual Gala a few days later. “[Peter] Baker today in the New York Times said that I want to be a dictator,” said former president when referencing an article detailing his comments. “I didn’t say that. I said I want to be a dictator for one day. You know why I wanted to be a dictator? Because I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
