OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Barack Obama caused a huge backlash from a tweet he posted just a day after the second-worst grade school shooting massacre in the country’s history.
Obama was responding to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were shot to death by an 18-year-old high school student in the district.
The gunman was killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent after an exchange of fire with him and other responding police officers.
Fox News reports:
The bloodshed in Uvalde occurred one day prior to the two-year mark of the death of George Floyd, which sparked civil unrest across the country in 2020 after viral footage showed Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on him as he repeatedly claimed he couldn’t breathe until he died.
Chauvin was convicted of second-and third-degree murder last year.
Obama commemorated Floyd’s passing while tying it to the current national mourning of the children killed in Uvalde.
“As we grieve the children of Uvalde today, we should take time to recognize that two years have passed since the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer,” Obama wrote Wednesday. “His killing stays with us all to this day, especially those who loved him.”
“In the aftermath of his murder, a new generation of activists rose up to channel their anguish into organized action, launching a movement to raise awareness of systemic racism and the need for criminal justice and police reform,” the former president continued, going on to promote an initiative for his foundation.
Critics raged at Obama for bringing Floyd into the equation.
“Not a single grieving parent today gives a rip about what happened to Floyd or anyone right now,” Redstate editor Kira Davis reacted. “For crying out loud. This is not the time to be advertising for your favorite activist group. How utterly vile.”
“What in the world does the former have to do with the latter?” Ben Shapiro wondered.
“I don’t understand the connection,” journalist Andy Ngo similarly added.
“Bro. Not the same. At all,” Fox News contributor Ben Domenech tweeted at Obama.
“‘It sucks those kids died, but remember George Floyd? He’s who I’m still thinking about.’ — Barack Obama,” Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon mockingly wrote to the former president.
“George Floyd is the real victim of Uvalde,” Washington Examiner contributor Harry Khachatrian noted.
“Brah, this ain’t it. Little kids slaughtered at school is not the equivalent of Floyd dying after resisting arrest while high,” Blaze Media podcast host Jason Whitlock wrote, adding: “This is one of the worst tweets in history.”
President Joe Biden, who was Obama’s vice president, was also ripped for his remarks the evening of the tragedy, as critics blamed him for trying to score political points:
I had hoped, when I became President, I would not have to do this again.
Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent second, third, fourth graders. And how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened see their friends die as if they’re on a battlefield, for God’s sake. They’ll live with it the rest of their lives.
There’s a lot we don’t know yet, but there’s a lot we do know. …
As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?
It’s been 340- — 3,448 days — 10 years since I stood up at a high school in Connecticut — a grade school in Connecticut, where another gunman massacred 26 people, including 20 first graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Since then, there have been over 900 incidents of gunfires reported on school grounds.
Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Santa Fe High School in Texas. Oxford High School in Michigan. The list goes on and on.
“Deer aren’t running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God’s sake. It’s just sick,” he quipped.
“Biden had a chance to unite the country in our mourning of the lost innocent children but instead he rambled about the gun lobby, attacked Republicans, and wandered off the stage. We are being led by an incompetent, incoherent fool who also happens to be a very bad man,” conservative writer Matt Walsh responded.
“Joe Biden cannot help but use that stupid, lazy, inappropriate gun about deer in Kevlar vests. What a disgraceful moment in this inappropriately political speech. But yeah… he’s the unifier-in-chief,” radio host Jason Rantz said.
“Biden opened with a heartfelt and heart wrenching message to the families of the massacred children. He quoted Scripture. Had he only stopped there. But then he launched into a vicious, ugly, political tirade. A lost moment to unite a divided nation,” Todd Starnes said.
