Trump Visits Florida Hospital Treating School Shooting Victims

WASHINGTON, FL — President Trump arrived in South Florida early Friday evening and stopped at a hospital where victims of Wednesday's school shooting were recovering. When the president tweeted that he planned "to meet with some of the bravest people on earth" earlier in the day, one Broward County official called the trip "absurd." The official blamed the president for reversing an Obama-era rule that helped keep mentally ill people from being able to purchase guns.

The president and first lady Melania Trump arrived at Broward Health North Hospital in Pompano Beach around 6:30 p.m. after landing at Palm Beach International Airport on Air Force One.

The Trumps met with victims and thanked doctors, nurses and medical professionals for their response to Wednesday’s mass shooting, when a teen gunman is accused of killing 17 people and wounding a number of others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

The president praised the “incredible” work of doctors, nurses and first responders who helped care for the victims after the shooting.

Trump called the quick response of medical personnel “record-setting” and said some victims reached the hospital in about 20 minutes.

Trump was speaking as he walked with a doctor at the Broward Health North Hospital.

The president said it’s “very sad that something like that could happen.”

Trump went on to meet with law enforcement at the Broward County Sheriff’s office later on Friday before heading to his Palm Beach club for the long holiday weekend.

Earlier on Friday, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that seven people injured in the attack remained in the hospital. He said that investigators, "working feverishly and fervently," had spoken with, or contacted nearly 3,200 students and 200 staff and faculty as part of the investigation.

Appearing on CNN ahead of the president's visit, Broward County Vice Mayor Mark Bogen called for a ban on teenagers being able to purchase assault weapons. Accused Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz allegedly used an AR-15 assault rifle to carry out the massacre at the high school, where he was expelled a year ago.

"Him coming here to me is absurd. Him coming here is absolutely absurd and he's a hypocrite," charged Bogen. "How can you come here and talk about how horrible it is when you support these laws?"

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Bogen accused Trump of reversing an Obama-era rule that helped keep mentally ill people from purchasing guns.

"President Trump, now based on his actions, allows mentally ill people to purchase guns when over a year ago they could not," said Bogen. "This is a man who supports teenagers and other people to buy assault weapons and to have these type of weapons, and then comes down here and wants to act as though this is horrible, and this shouldn't happen, but goes back to Washington and supports it. It's hypocrisy. It's absolute hypocrisy."

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said that "everything's on the table" when considering tightening gun control laws in the state following the school shooting.

"I'm going to look at every way that we can make sure our kids are safe," Scott told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday when asked if he was ready to commit to working on tightening gun restrictions in the state.

"We cannot let this pass without making something happen that hopefully, and it's my goal that this will never happen again in my state," Scott later said on CNN's "The Situation Room."

Scott's message on Thursday went farther than at any time since the Republican became governor.

Before he left Washington, the president ordered all U.S. flags at government facilities to be flown at half-staff until sunset on Monday in honor of the victims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Trump visits a South Florida hospital on Friday night (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)