Newtown tries and, so far, fails to get Trump to acknowledge Sandy Hook massacre

[JHan]

By Christopher Hoffman

“We want facts to matter,” Board Chairman Keith Alexander explained at a recent meeting. “That’s the essential point.”

The impetus for the letter—sent last month and first reported here—was Trump’s warm embrace of Alex Jones, owner and host of the conspiracy-minded website InfoWars. Jones, whose audience is estimated in the millions, has been among the most aggressive promoters of claims that the Sandy Hook killings were staged. “Sandy Hook is synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured,” Jones said on his show in 2014.

InfoWars lists no phone number or direct contact for Jones, who as recently as March 8 continued to question whether the Sandy Hook killings happened. He did apologize earlier this month for comments about a hoax involving a pizzeria in Washington, DC.

Messages sent to both the website’s general email and InfoWars Editor Paul Joseph Watson went unanswered.

Alexander says he’s still hopeful they’ll get a response from the White House. “I don’t think I have ever sent a letter to the White House before so I don’t know what to expect from a response as far as timing, though I do hope that we will receive a direct response at some point,” he wrote in an email.

*snip*

To say Jones’s name is mud in Newtown is a gross understatement. Local officials revile him, using words at public meetings like “bully,” “disgusting,” and “despicable” to describe him. But as much damage as he has done, they fear he could do even more thanks to Trump, who appeared on Jones’s show during the campaign and called to thank him for his support after the election. In the months since Trump’s victory, Jones has bragged about receiving phone calls from the new president and said he was seeking White House press credentials for InfoWars.

*snip*

The ensuing debate revealed how fake news has undermined people’s faith that truth can triumph over lies. Even officials who supported the letter said that a Trump acknowledgement of the tragedy and repudiation of the hoaxers would not end the harassment Newtown has endured for years. Alexander’s goal, he said at one meeting, was to return things to where they were before Trump embraced Jones. In the end, only the school board sent the letter to Trump.

http://www.cjr.org/local_news/sandy-hook-trump.php

[world wide wally]

1. One more American disgrace

Fuck you, Jones and Trump

[JHan]

2. +++++++++++ 1000000000000

as I read this my heart split into pieces. I can't even imagine what it must be like to go through that tragedy , and deal with the effects of the fake news shit.

[TEB]

3. Very sad and disgusting

[Cha]

4. Stupid fuck

[JHan]

22. yes, when you boil down Trump, all that's left in the pan is "stupid" and "fuck"..

and not fuck in the good way.

[JI7]

5. it's going to be 5 year towards the end of the year since this happened

it's already horrible to deal with but to deal with this shit also is just fucked up.

[Fast Walker 52]

6. Wow. I was always shocked this wasn't a bigger deal in the campaign and thought reporters

should really have pressed him on this

[dalton99a]

10. That alone should disqualify anyone from elected office

[Fast Walker 52]

16. you would think... but somehow Trump trampled every fucking rule and still "won"

which is why things are so insane and fucked up now

[yardwork]

7. How many people in Newtown voted for Trump?

[Fast Walker 52]

17. good question.... is it a conservative or liberal district? I think they have a Dem rep

[Vinca]

8. I'm wondering what will happen when there is a massacre on Trump watch.

It will happen - it always does. Will he acknowledge gun violence or will he tweet conspiracy theories? This must be so upsetting for the Newtown families. I can't begin to imagine.

[TEB]

9. I feel saddened

These poor people loss so much as parent I could not imagine. I used to run to providence and on 84 I'd see the new town sign and it would just set me in to saying prayers for them whenever I went past the exit driving truck.

[Orrex]

11. He'll blame Muslims, and his worshipers will accept it as gospel

Even if it's carried out by blond haired, blue-eyed Aryan von Schutzstaffel while clad in Nazi regalia, he'll blame it on Muslims, and there'll be weeks of debate while we try to prove that the shooter was motivated by Islamic extremists.

Further, when the next shooting happens, the GOP will call for the nation to rally behind the president. His supporters will do it, of course, as will most of the allegedly remorseful people who voted for him, and those who don't suck up to him will be cast as unAmerican.

Further, this will be used as an excuse to boost defense and border spending, and they'll naturally have to siphon money out of social programs to do so.

[TEB]

13. I agree with you

Trump supporters would accept anything he says. The hate and bigotry is so depressing.

[Orrex]

14. They love him even as he's taking away their lifeline

I've had bitter arguments on FB with local idiots who stand to lose their healthcare & other assistance, and they blindly insist that it'll all work out. "I trust him," they say.

I don't care if they screw themselves into impoverished decrepitude, but they're positively frothing at the mouth to drag the rest of us down with them.

[TEB]

15. The same here

My friends there like well it will all work out this is just the first stage there will be stage two and three I'm like your morons. You voted for this ass who wants to destroy every social program we have. I tell em I do not want to go back to the 1800s they do not get it , times I feel like beating them with a ball bat.

[Orrex]

19. They think that it'll happen to the other guy

And, usually, the "other guy" is assumed to be brown.

Someone else on DU observed that Trump's chumps are even ok with losing some of their protections as long as some brown guy suffers more, and I'd say that that's about 100% accurate.

[Fast Walker 52]

18. yeah, it's freaking scary... th nightmare scenario

and Trump escalating the wars in Iraq and Syria with more civilians won't help tamp down terrorism either

[JHan]

23. i dread any terrible event happening at home with the orange flustercuck of madness in charge

we already have him to thank for 200 civilians dying in Yemen.

[Initech]

12. Infowars fans don't care about children.

And they're Trump's biggest fans. Yeah they'll say they do because of Pizzagate (which was fake news), but then they act like the murder of 20 children never happened and that it's an act to get your guns taken away. It's pure hypocrisy and a steaming load of bullshit.

[Blue_Tires]

20. Good luck... Breitbart/InfoWars said it was a hoax for Obama to grab guns

and instill martial law so he could put all patriotic white folks in camps, and that is the official position of the WH

[stevenleser]

21. He would have to be forced to do it. Trump knows Jones and his idiotic followers are some of

his most loyal followers. No way he angers them unless he has no other choice.