The president is about to make “remarks on the national security and humanitarian crisis on our southern border” in the Rose Garden.
The president is about to make ‘remarks on the national security and humanitarian crisis on our southern border’ in the Rose Garden.
He entered the Rose Garden at 10:39 am, more than a half hour later than the scheduled start time for this event, and opened up with an update on trade talks with China and the U.K.
His remarks are open press and this event has been on his public schedule since last night. Your pooler will continue sending color, however, such as the fact that newly-minted Attorney General William Barr is seated in the front row of this event. So is DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Several women holding pictures of their slain children – “Angel Moms” – are also sitting in the front. They were seen exiting the Oval Office before the event began.
As networks ran live video of the event, two women stood and held pictures of their children. One of them was Susan Stevens. She told me that her daughter Toria Stevens died Jan. 22, 2018 of a drug overdose. She said she’s here today representing 72,000 moms at the White House today whose children overdosed. Her daughter was 22 when she passed.
I asked her what the president’s message was to her and the other women he met within the Oval. “He said that he was so sorry, and he said that he prayed for us.” She said they told him that they also pray for him.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen took her seat next to the women midway through our conversation and struck up women of her own in hushed tones.