February 4, 2020

A Parkland Dad Interrupts Trump’s State of the Union

Fred Guttenberg said he was there as a guest of Nancy Pelosi.

Fred Guttenberg with a photo of his 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, shortly after she was killed in the 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida.Jose A. Iglesias/Miami Herald/AP

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As Trump claimed that the Second Amendment was “under siege” in his state of the union address Tuesday night, he was interrupted by a father from Parkland, Florida.

Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, tweeted before the speech that he was attending as a guest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He shouted out about “victims of gun violence like my daughter,” according to HuffPost’s Matt Fuller. Security escorted Guttenberg out of the House chamber.

Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg quickly tweeted his support for Guttenberg.

Trump mentioned gun violence in his speech only in an attempt to gin up fear against undocumented immigrants and sanctuary laws. His speech used the phrase “criminal alien” five times.

Watch Gutenberg describe his protest modus operandi:

“If you’re on the wrong side of this issue, I’m going to work with every ounce of my fiber to fire you. That’s the bottom line. You don’t deserve to serve.”

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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