President Trump went after CNN for allegedly scripting questions from a Florida school shooting survivor by not letting him participate with his original questions. Colton Haab refused to participate in in the CNN town hall, and his original questions were being replaced with the scripted ones.
President Donald Trumps drew attention to CNN’s sick outrage, tweeting out on Thursday, “School shooting survivor says he quit @CNN Town Hall after refusing scripted question.” @TuckerCarlson. Just like so much of CNN, Fake News. That’s why their ratings are so bad! MSNBC may be worse.”
CNN responded to the Presidents tweet, denying the students account, saying, “There is absolutely no truth to this story — and we can prove that. CNN did not provide or script questions for anyone in last night’s town hall, nor have we ever. Those are the facts.”
Haab, who survived the Parkland Florida high school shooting last week, told WPLG-TV, an ABC affiliate in Miami that on Thursday, “CNN had originally asked me to write a speech and questions and it ended up being all scripted.”
“I expected to be able to ask my questions and give my opinion on my questions,” said Haab.
“I don’t think that it’s going get anything accomplished,” he concluded. “It’s not gonna ask the true questions that all the parents and teachers and students have.”
Haab also mentioned that he was going to ask about hiring veterans as armed security guards in schools.
However, CNN’s senior manager of public relations, Richard Hudock CNN disputed Haab’s story, saying that “There is absolutely no truth to this.” He further added that “CNN did not provide or script questions for anyone in last night’s town hall, nor have we ever.”
“After seeing an interview with Colton Haab, we invited him to participate in our town hall along with other students and administrators from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School,” said Hudock. “Colton’s father withdrew his name from participation before the forum began, which we regretted but respected.”
“We welcome Colton to join us on CNN today to discuss his views on school safety,” he said
Haab reported that “ushered 60 to 70 people to shelter in an open Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps room” and used “Kevlar sheets generally used for the Junior ROTC marksmanship program” and used the shield to protect themselves from the gunfire.
“We took those sheets, and we put them in front of everybody so they weren’t seen, because they were behind a solid object and the Kevlar would slow the bullet down,” Haab told the CNN.
“I didn’t think it was going to stop it, but it would definitely slow it down to make it from a catastrophic to a lifesaving thing,” he added.
Haab told Fox News on Feb. 17, “If coach Feis had had his firearm in school that day, I believe that he could have most likely stopped the threat”.