Parkland Father Responds to Trump Denouncing Background Checks: ‘He’s a Liar, He Can’t Be Taken Seriously’

The father of a Parkland victim appeared on MSNBC Tuesday night to respond to President Donald Trump’s reported flip-flopping on pursuing increased background checks for firearms, as grieving parent-turned-advocate Fred Guttenberg called the president “a liar” who “can’t be taken seriously” on the issue.

Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed during the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, made the comments while commenting on an Atlantic story on Trump privately assuring NRA boss Wayne LaPierre that universal background checks are off the table, despite the president’s recently calls for implementing such a law.

Guttenberg began his Hardball interview by condemning Trump’s recent comments attacking Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats, saying, “He incites violence.”

“What he did today with his arguments against gun safety [to the NRA], that’s who he is, he’s a liar. When America was at its weakest, he said, I’m listening, I hear you, I’m going to work with you, but give it a week or two, and he moves on,” continued the founder of Orange Ribbons for Jamie, a gun control advocacy organization named after Guttenberg’s late daughter. “He did the same thing after Parkland. It’s who he is, he’s a liar, he can’t be taken seriously.”

He also responded to Trump’s recent claim that increased background checks could lead to a “slippery slope” where all firearms are banned.

“A slippery slope is getting to 40,000 [gun violence] victims a year,” he argued. “Wanting to do something about it, and wanting to defeat these people, and wanting to get Wayne LaPierre out of the president’s ear … is simply wanting to be responsible and fix this.”

On Sunday, Trump insisted to reporters inside the Oval Office that America has “very strong background checks right now.”

“But we have missing areas, and areas that don’t complete the whole circle. And we’re looking at different things,” the president added. “And I have to tell you that it is a mental problem. And I’ve said it a hundred times it’s not the gun that pulls the trigger, it’s the people.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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