According to emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, first reported by The Baltimore Post, advisors to then-President Barack Obama immediately strategized how to exploit the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary school to push their gun control agenda. “Tap peoples [sic] emotions,” Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel advised then-Education Secretary Arne Duncan on December 16, 2012, just two days after the massacre that left 26 dead. The victims’ bodies were yet to be laid to rest.
The two discussed how they could exploit the tragedy to bring about their anti-gun agenda. “What are your thoughts?” Duncan asked Emanuel on an email with the subject line, “CT shooting.”
“Go for a vote this week asap before it fades,” replied Emanuel. “Tap peoples [sic] emotion. Make it simple assault weapons.”
“Yup- thanks,” replied the education secretary.
“When I did brady bill and assault weapons for Clinton we always made it simple. Criminals or war weapons,” wrote back Emanuel.
Duncan then inquired about the so-called “gun show loophole” and other talking points to push on the public.
“Gun show loophole? Database? Cop-killer bullets? Too complicated?” he wrote.
“Cop killer maybe,” answered Emanuel. “The other no.”
“Got it,” Duncan agreed.
Emanuel served as the Obama White House Chief of Staff from 2008 to January of 2009. Fittingly, the ruthless politico famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste, and what I mean by that is, it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” The murder of 20 children included, apparently.
Manhattan Institute senior fellow Max Eden called the immediate politicization of the tragedy “shameful.”
Duncan has been under fire following the Parkland, Florida school shooting that transpired earlier this year, as the shooter’s repeated bad behavior was reportedly swept under the rug due to a school program intended to close the gap in the racial disparity in public school disciplinary records, including criminal actions. Such a program was a model for the Obama Administration’s infamous “Dear Colleague” letter in 2014 directing schools to do the same. As reported by The Daily Wire in April, the seemingly well-intentioned program has resulted in alleged rape, violence, murder, extreme bullying, and cover-ups.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos heard from proponents and opponents of the directive in April and is currently considering whether to rescind the measure.
Founders of parent and student advocacy group Parent2Parent Network, Nicole and Josh Landers, told The Daily Wire in a statement that the “email exchange demonstrates a shocking political conspiracy to draw upon an agenda rather than focus on the murders of 20 school children and 6 educators from Sandy Hook.”
“Two days after this horrific shooting, the focus of their response was to manipulate people’s emotions rather than supporting the families of the victims,” the statement continued. “It is clear that Emanuel and Duncan do not care about students’ lives, they only care about their gun control agenda and their image.”
“It appears that former Secretary Duncan was and is using the gun control platform to deflect from his failed educational policies which have negatively impacted nearly 51 million students and over 3 million teachers nationwide,” they added.