Compare Trump's civil listening session to CNN's scripted melee

From the Washington Post:
Word for word: What everyone said when Trump met with students and parents to talk about guns
By Valerie Strauss February 22 at 12:25 AM Email the author
President Trump sits next to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students Carson Abt, center, and Ariana Klein at the White House on Wednesday. (Bloomberg News)

President Trump held a meeting at the White House on Wednesday with students and parents to talk about how to prevent gun violence following the shooting deaths of 17 people at a South Florida high school last week. Below is the transcript, as provided by the White House, and a video of the full meeting.

Trump was joined by Vice President Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, along with students and parents from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the scene of last week’s shooting. Others involved with the effort to expand gun control were also present, including a D.C. student and parents who lost children in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

[‘Fix it’: Students and parents tell Trump he needs to address gun violence at schools]

The president convened the meeting to listen to the students’ and adults’ ideas for preventing another mass shooting at a school. Among the suggestions were increasing security at schools and raising the age at which someone can purchase an assault rifle, though Trump spoke about arming teachers with firearms.

While hosting a discussion on school shootings on Feb. 21, President Trump suggested that teachers who receive “special training” could carry guns. (The Washington Post)
 

“If the coach had a firearm in his locker, when he ran at this guy — that coach was very brave, saved a lot of lives, I suspect — but if he had a firearm, he wouldn’t have had to run,” Trump said, referring to Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach and security guard who was one of the people killed at Douglas. “He would have shot, and that would have been the end of it.”
Some of the participants took issue, including Nicole Hockley, who lost a son in the Sandy Hook shootings:

“I appreciate the point on arming teachers.  It’s not, personally, something that I support. Rather than arm them with a firearm, I would rather arm them with the knowledge of how to prevent these acts from happening in the first place. How do you identify the kids in your class that are most at risk? And then, most importantly within a school, how do we have a safety assessment program so that schools know how to deal with all these threats; have established protocols to deal with them, and get underneath the surface of what’s going on in that child’s life; find out why they’re on this pathway behavior and intervene?”

You can read a Washington Post article about the meeting in the State Dining Room here, and below, find the full transcript, as provided by the White House, as well as the complete video:

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Here is the CNN townhall:
Students at town hall to Washington, NRA: Guns are the problem, do something
By Emanuella Grinberg and Steve Almasy, CNN
Updated 5:19 AM ET, Thu February 22, 2018
Sunrise, Florida (CNN)They were angry and frustrated. And given the chance to face the lawmakers and others who can make their lives safer, high school students who a week ago were running from gunfire pointedly demanded change Wednesday night from Washington and the National Rifle Association.

Survivors of the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, took center stage at a town hall hosted by CNN as thousands of community members cheered on the young people thrust into the national spotlight by a massacre that killed 17 people.

The students-turned-gun-control advocates, their teachers and parents asked frank questions of Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson and Rep. Ted Deutch about whether they would support banning certain assault-style rifles and refuse to take money from the NRA.

"We would like to know why do we have to be the ones to do this? Why do we have to speak out to the (state) Capitol? Why do we have to march on Washington, just to save innocent lives?" asked senior Ryan Deitsch, his voice rising with each question.

The Stoneman Douglas students and parents also confronted NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who said the organization feels the system for buying firearms is flawed and too many people who shouldn't be able to buy guns are getting through the cracks.

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CNN denies giving students scripted questions. Are they spinning the truth or outright lying..
update:  Another student comes forward to say CNN tried to get her to spin an ‘agenda’ for town hall

CNN asked high school hero to participate in school shooting town hall, then gave him scripted questions. He refused. CNN says he is lying
by Thomas Madison
 Colton Haab is a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He is being recognized for his heroism in leading a group of 90 students to safety and shielding them with Kevlar mats for protection from the bullets of Nikolas Cruz.

Haab was invited by CNN to attend a town hall meeting to discuss the horrific event and ways to prevent future tragedies. He was asked to prepare questions in advance and to ask his questions at the town hall event.

As Haab explained to a reporter from WPLG in the Twitter video below, “I expected to be able to ask my questions and give my opinion on my questions.”

Except it didn’t work out that way. Habb was given scripted questions by CNN, which he refused to ask, declining the invitation to attend the event. “CNN had originally asked me to write a speech and questions, and it ended up being all scripted,” Haab continued.

In a Thursday morning tweet, CNN denied having scripted questions for Haab or anyone else, which means someone is lying.

I can’t vouch for the truthfulness of Colton Haab, but CNN is well-known for being less than honest nearly all the time and spinning every broadcast with a decided liberal slant.

Nearly all of the responses to CNN’s tweet agree that CNN has no credibility.
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