The New York Times reports:
In an unrelenting quest for justice after their son was killed in a car crash and the driver who is a suspect in the case fled Britain for the United States, two Britons traveled all the way to the White House this week. There, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, the parents of Harry Dunn, 19, who was killed in the crash in August, met with President Trump on Tuesday. He had an unpleasant surprise for them, they later said.
Anne Sacoolas, 42, the wife of an American diplomat and the driver involved in the crash that killed their son, was in an adjacent room, waiting to meet them. The police in England said she had fled the country while claiming immunity. Mr. Trump, a former reality television star well versed in the language of staging a spectacle for the cameras, had another surprise. Members of the White House press corps were in another room.
The Washington Post reports:
The grieving parents of a British teenager who was killed in a car crash involving an American diplomat’s wife felt ambushed when President Donald Trump tried to get them to meet with the woman in front of the press, attorneys for the couple said Wednesday.
“If there’s going to be a meeting like that, it should not involve a surprise, a jack-in-the-box, pop-out-of-a-circus-tent meeting seven weeks after the loss,” said Radd Seiger, a retired lawyer who is a neighbor of the family and accompanied them to the White House. “For this to happen, you would want some heavy-duty therapy and you want to meet in a neutral environment.”
Trump told reporters Wednesday that he thought the family had wanted to meet with Sacoolas, but that “they weren’t ready for it” Tuesday. “It was very sad, to be honest,” he said. “They lost their son.”
Trump just addressed this “ambush,” and said driving is hard for Americans in the UK because “the roads are opposite.”
“You go to Europe and the roads are opposite. It’s very tough if you’re from the US. That happens to a lot of people, by the way.” https://t.co/FAFLC3vKAu
— julia reinstein ? (@juliareinstein) October 16, 2019
Donald Trump says Boris Johnson asked for grieving British parents to meet suspect in son’s death at the White House. Family refused as felt as if it was an “ambush”. What a mess https://t.co/CyVfFlDns2
— Graeme Demianyk (@GraemeDemianyk) October 16, 2019
“Trump, it seems, thought he could convince the Dunns to meet the woman who killed their son, and would do so by opening a side door through which she would walk. The whole scene would be captured by a pool of photographers who had been summoned…” https://t.co/WxNCofR2RT
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 16, 2019
Blame blame blame. Blame Boris, blame the parents or their lawyers. Rather than admit that it was monstrous to ambush the parents with an unscheduled meeting with their son’s killer, who is being shielded from justice by the US. https://t.co/JnWfPCJQcf
— Sarah Joseph (@profsarahj) October 16, 2019
Harry Dunn’s parents REJECT Trump’s ‘bombshell’ offer to confront their son’s killer in White House ambush https://t.co/q43V0lxVsK
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) October 16, 2019
“Thirdly that Mrs. Sacoolas was present in the building and fourthly that it was the president’s intention for Harry’s family to meet Mrs. Sacoolas in the Oval Office in front of several photographers in what was obviously designed to be a press call,” https://t.co/hd1Iqz4MW7
— James Miller (@Millermena) October 16, 2019
US president @realDonaldTrump says @BorisJohnson asked him to offer a meeting in the White House between the parents of Harry Dunn and the woman involved in the accident which killed him.
Trump described the meeting as “beautiful but sad”.
More here: https://t.co/rX1GKLtrrg pic.twitter.com/LZGZ4i1Uxw
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 16, 2019