Dallas

VP Talks About Florida School Shooting, Tax Cuts in Dallas Speech

Vice President Mike Pence started the first of two speaking events in Dallas Saturday by remembering those victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

"In America, we mourn with those who mourn and we grieve with those who grieve," Pence said.

He recalled his last trip to Texas was visiting the town of Sutherland Springs, the site of a mass shooting at a church in 2017.

"The heartache in Broward County [Florida] is unimaginable, but it's a heartache Texas knows too well," Pence said. "Then as now, hearts are broken. Then as now, heroes were forged."

The Vice President highlighted two of those lives lost in the school shooting and dedicated to make school safety the administration's top priority.

"We will get to the bottom of what happened here," Pence said. 

He said the Department of Justice is examining the intersection of mental health and criminality and during a meeting with governor's this month, the President is expected to make school safety a top issue during the meeting.

"As the President said, 'no child, no teacher should ever be in danger' in an American school," Pence said. "No parent should ever have to fear for their sons or daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning."

The Vice President also spoke to the crowd in Dallas about recent tax cuts at the crowd gathered for the "America First" event.

Before his trip to Dallas, Pence toured the border in the Rio Grande Valley Friday with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Monitor in McAllen reports that Pence's border tour included a visit to the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, a trip down the Rio Grande in a Border Patrol boat and a walk in Hidalgo alongside the levee wall, about 20 miles of steel fence combined with a concrete levee barrier.

The vice president also spoke at a Republican National Committee event in San Antonio.

Pence has a second speaking engagement scheduled in Dallas on Saturday.

Later in the day, he'll deliver more remarks at the Dallas County Republican Party Reagan Day Dinner before heading back to Washington Saturday night.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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