‘There Is No Excuse’: Twitter Goes Scorched Earth on Texas Senator Who Defended Uvalde Officers’ Delayed Response to School Shooting
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Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Saturday denounced “the second guessing and finger pointing among state and local law enforcement” following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Cornyn argued that “complex scenarios require split second decisions” and that it is “easy to criticize with 20-20 hindsight.”
The second guessing and finger pointing among state and local law enforcement is destructive, distracting, and unfair. Complex scenarios require split second decisions. Easy to criticize with 20-20 hindsight https://t.co/ssq2FAInDX
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) May 28, 2022
Cornyn added in a second tweet: “There will be plenty of time to sort this out later. Focus now should be on through investigation and lessons learned to prevent future tragedies, not finger pointing.”
The police response to the shooting has been widely criticized, as disturbing reports have emerged that police were scene for about an hour before the gunman was killed but decided not to enter the classroom where the suspect was located despite multiple calls to 911 from within the classroom while authorities were outside. According to San Antonio’s CBS affiliate, an officer said ‘Yell if you need help,’ and someone in his class did and the gunman “overheard and he came in and shot her.”
Law enforcement has also come under fire for restricting parents from running into the school as they stood outside, going so far as to handcuff, pepper spray and tase some parents, according to witness accounts.
Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a Friday press conference that officers waited to get keys from a janitor to open the locked doors to the classroom where the gunman was, and that an officer working for the school district responded to an initial 911 call about an armed man near the school but drove past the gunman and mistook a teacher as the shooter.
Cornyn’s tweet, which came a day after McCraw’s press conference admitting police errors, was swiftly — and heavily — criticized.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a U.S. Marine combat veteran, responded that he “saw 18 year old boys in war do split second decisions.”
“There is no excuse these officers need to be held accountable,” he added.
I saw 18 year old boys in war do split second decisions. There is no excuse these officers need to be held accountable. https://t.co/njUoE79Alu
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) May 28, 2022
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) weighed in as well, writing, “Wait until he finds out that there are politicians who think every American should be able to make those catastrophically deadly split second* decisions with no training and with military grade firearms.”
Wait until he finds out that there are politicians who think every American should be able to make those catastrophically deadly split second* decisions with no training and with military grade firearms. https://t.co/bOo1zO9IMm
— Rep. John Yarmuth (@RepJohnYarmuth) May 29, 2022
Gallego and Yarmuth were far from being the lone critics of Cornyn’s response.
You run towards danger or you run away. Clear what happened here. No excuses.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 28, 2022
How many split seconds in the 40 minutes they dithered outside?
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 28, 2022
If you think your stalling is going to make us stop talking about this, you’re wrong. Your pals’ speeches at the @NRA just keep digging the hole.
— Rachel Vindman 🌻 (@natsechobbyist) May 29, 2022
The parents were criticizing them in real time, not hindsight. It wasn’t split second, it was more than an hour.
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) May 28, 2022
Up to 19 police officers waited for 78 minutes in that hallway outside the classroom, while the shooter was inside murdering little children. That’s a hell of a lot of “split seconds” — 4,680 to be exact. Every second that passed was a second that another child could be killed.
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) May 28, 2022
Lord have mercy. I don’t remember this kind of statement during a massive withdrawal in a war zone where less people lost their life in one day in Uvalde.
— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) May 28, 2022
is this part of an auto-repeat mass shooting bot Senator Cornyn’s office runs? I’m not sure “20/20 hindsight” really cuts it as an argument in this case, does it? https://t.co/1R2FogEZEW
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 28, 2022
I’m really BAD at math, but even I know a split second decision does NOT equal 40 minutes! 😡🤬 https://t.co/QyhHqMzvri
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) May 29, 2022
Yes, it’s only thanks to the benefit of 20-20 hindsight that we know that leaving a mass shooter in a room with children for over an hour was the wrong thing to do. https://t.co/Q2Jt5gHSh8
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) May 28, 2022
Criticizing and finger-pointing is exactly what DPS Chief Steve McCraw did yesterday when he said it was a “mistake” for the Uvalde CISD police chief to order police to wait around while the shooter was inside the school. https://t.co/MMz4PkJDDu
— Forrest Wilder (@Forrest4Trees) May 28, 2022
I don’t think it’s too much to ask the police to intervene when 4th graders are being slaughtered.
And if they don’t – they’re going to get criticized.
A little surprised you don’t see any issue with how they responded.
— Tim Fullerton (@TimFullerton) May 28, 2022
Cornyn has so far responded to only one reply to his tweet — a question about accountability for the law enforcement officers involved — writing that “the story has changed multiple times already.”
“My only point we need a thorough investigation and to nail down facts before reaching a conclusion,” Cornyn said. “Accountability should follow.”
