President Trump on Friday reiterated his call to put more armed personnel in schools to deter violence during a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting, signaling his strong support for the gun rights group after suggesting months earlier that he was open to some firearm restrictions.
In his speech, Trump endorsed a top NRA priority to allow trained teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools and to install more armed security guards. Signs declaring a school as a gun-free zone, Trump said, were essentially invitations to attackers to “come in and take us,” he argued.
“They love their students and they’re not going to let anybody hurt their students. But you have to give them a chance,” Trump said. “In America, we trust the people to be wise and good … that is why in America, we’ve always trusted the people to keep and bear arms.”
He added: “Your second amendment rights are under siege but they will never ever be under siege as long as I’m your president,” Trump told NRA members, whom he referred to as patriots.
Remember just a few weeks ago when Trump was saying that the NRA has “less power over me”? Ha ha, no.
* John Wagner, Devlin Barrett, and Josh Dawsey report that Rudy Giuliani is desperately revising his story:
President Trump’s new lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani sought Friday to clean up a series of comments made during a whirlwind media tour meant to bolster the president’s standing regarding a payment to a porn star but that instead created new problems for his client.
In a statement issued hours after Trump told reporters Giuliani was still getting up to speed on the facts, the former New York mayor said that a $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels by longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen would have happened regardless of whether Trump was on the presidential ballot the following month.
“The payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the President’s family,” Giuliani said in the statement. “It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not.”
He’s trying to say that Trump didn’t commit a campaign finance violation, but we still have the fact that he’s been lying about it for months. I’m guessing there’ll be some very interesting things in Cohen’s records that prosecutors seized.
* Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Carrie Dann explain why Democrats actually have a pretty good shot of taking the Senate in November.
* Colin Kahl and Vipin Narang explain how Trump may be about to screw up nuclear policy with both North Korea and Iran.
* Griffin Edwards, Erik Nesson, Joshua Robinson, and Fredrick Vars share research showing that waiting periods from gun purchases save lives by preventing suicides.
* And finally, Donald Trump says “I would love to speak” with Robert Mueller, and there’s “nothing I want to do more.” Uh huh.