Wasserman Schultz blames Trump for DC National Guard shooting death

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., former chair of the Democratic National Committee, suggested Friday that President Donald Trump is to blame for the death of a member of the National Guard.

Multiple left-wing commentators argued that the ambush-style shooting of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe Wednesday only happened because of Trump’s orders to station the National Guard in US cities.

On Friday, as the nation was still reeling from the shooting, CNN host Sara Sidner spoke to Schultz about the tragic incident.

The shooting, Schultz said, “begs the question, would an individual have flown across the country to target law enforcement officers in Washington, DC? And, I mean, the answer is likely no. So, why wasn‘t the president‘s first thought, ‘Wow, you know, maybe I should reconsider deploying military troops in the nation‘s capital or in any city?’ 

“Particularly not when they haven‘t coordinated closely with the leadership of these cities and when we have law enforcement that are quite capable of handling the criminal justice issues that are — that we need law enforcement to focus on, and not our military.”

Trump said he launched the crackdown because local law enforcement had failed to handle the amount of crime in some of America’s most famous cities.

Even DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, after initial hesitance, admitted at a news conference earlier this year that the federal surge has had a noticeable effect on one of America’s most famously dangerous cities, to the point there was an 87% decrease in carjackings.

Since the shooting Wednesday, carried out by an Afghan national, according to authorities, Trump has called to halt mass migration from the “Third World” and to initiate a “reverse migration” plan.

Even before that, Sidner noted that “days before the shooting, the public learned through reporting that the Trump administration had planned to review and reinterview refugees that came in during the Biden administration.”

Follow the latest on the National Guard shooting in Washington, DC:

“I just think that any administration needs to be careful about making sweeping generalizations,” Wasserman Schultz responded. “If there were gaps that admitted this person, they would have failed over multiple levels of gaps. And this individual was trusted enough to participate in assisting our military during the war in Afghanistan.”

Trump should blame himself for putting the National Guard in harm’s way, Schultz argued.

“The president looks everywhere except inward to blame his own policies. We need to make sure that we don‘t have our military deployed in our cities, doing — handling law enforcement responsibilities,” she said. “We certainly need to make sure we always have the proper and appropriate and tight, tight vetting processes, and those should be reviewed. But it‘s never the president‘s fault or his policies when it comes to his reaction, and it‘s pretty disgusting.”

The White House issued a scathing response.

“This animal would’ve never been here if not for Joe Biden’s dangerous policies, which allowed countless unvetted criminals to invade our country and harm the American people. The Trump administration is taking every measure possible — in the face of unrelenting Democrat opposition — to get these monsters out of our country and clean up the mess made by the Biden administration. Instead of defending terrorists, the Democrats should join us in protecting the American people,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson wrote.