Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Trump After Dark: ‘How many children have to get shot?’

Andrew Pollack rose to speak at the White House today because his daughter could not.

“We’re here because my daughter has no voice — she was murdered last week, and she was taken from us, shot nine times,” Pollack said of his daughter, Meadow, who was killed last week in Parkland, Florida. “How many schools, how many children have to get shot?”


He added: "It stops here, with this administration and me. Because I’m not going to sleep until it is fixed.”

It was just one riveting, heartbreaking moment on a day filled with them: President Donald Trump listening to victims, survivors and family members of school shootings. Trump invited them to the White House to offer a public show of sympathy and support but, by his own words, to search for a solution to the epidemic of school shootings. Trump told them he could think of no greater loss than they had suffered.

The president also floated his own ideas for what should be done, POLITICO’s Eliana Johnson and Cristiano Lima reports , boosting the idea of “having teachers and staff carry weapons on school campuses.” (POLITICO’s Benjamin Wermund explains why arming teachers is highly unlikely.) Trump also pledged action, in some form. He said this would not “talk like it has been in the past.”

No consensus formed at the event, though. Trump is already facing some pushback from conservatives in Congress on gun-control measures.

At the White House views gently diverged, beyond the lingering sense of loss and anger that Pollack distilled to its painful essence:

"I'm never going to see my kid again. I want you all to know that," he said. "Never, ever, will I see my kid. I want it to sink in. It is eternity. My beautiful daughter, I'm never going to see again. It is simple."

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Elsewhere in Trump’s orbit:

FLORIDA FALLOUT: The tragedy in Parkland, Florida, is roiling the state's gun politics. Some observers now say that previous “non-starters” are now in play.

WHY ME?: President Trump once again took to Twitter to ask his attorney general why President Barack Obama’s administration isn’t under investigation for its ties to Russia.

VA PURGE: Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said he has the White House’s backing for a purge of what he called “subversion” at the agency.

FEAR FACTOR: Rachel Crooks, who has accused Trump of forcibly kissing her in 2006, said that she is not surprised he attacked her on Twitter and that he should “be afraid” of the truth coming out.

KOREA BOUND: Ivanka Trump will head to Korea to lead the U.S. delegation for the closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

STILL BERNING HER: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his top political adviser say they blame Hillary Clinton for allowing Russian election interference and say they reject special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment claiming that Russian trolls backed Sanders’ campaign.

SEAGAL OF THIS GUY: One-time action movie star Steven Seagal has a new book that unfurls a wild, conspiracy theory about the so-called Deep State, Mexican drug cartels and former President Barack Obama.

There you have it. You’re caught up on the Trump administration. Wednesday is finished.

