Trump’s ‘Henchmen’ Were ‘Snarling’ at Grieving Parents as President Tried to ‘Intimidate’ Them into Meeting Son’s Killer

Trump’s ‘Henchmen’ Were ‘Snarling’ at Grieving Parents as President Tried to ‘Intimidate’ Them into Meeting Son’s Killer

White House officials snarled at the grieving parents of the late Harry Dunn and their spokesman Radd Sieger, according to Sieger’s description of the events on Thursday. The 19-year-old Dunn was killed in a car accident by the wife of a U.S. diplomat. The family met Trump and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien in the White House this week and the President tried to make the family meet their son’s killer, Anne Sacoolas, in front of a bank of photographers.

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, why she thought Trump tried to spring the meeting on her.

“Probably to try to intimidate us into meeting her on U.S. soil,” Charles said. “You know, we’ve been saying all along that it needs to be on UK soil, it needs to be in a controlled environment. Not just for us but for her as well. She’s clearly traumatized. She’s a mum. She doesn’t know how we feel because she still has her children. She’s robbed us of one of ours, and she’s robbed our twin of his twinship. But we are still willing to meet her, but with therapists and mediators like we’ve been saying all along. We all need to be prepared for that.”

Family spokesman Radd Sieger was more direct in his criticism of the White House.

“We would have happily engaged in a discussion to go to the White House eventually but with a plan who we were meeting. Literally, out of the blue, my phone rang and I was asked to — whether we would be prepared to come down to the White House. So that context is important because we were busy doing our thing. We weren’t prepared for it.”

“So literally, four hours later, to be sat in the Oval Office, imagine how intimidating — it’s intimidating for me, let alone my good friends here. And then very quickly, the atmosphere changed. He’s a very forceful character. I’ve got her here. She’s in the next room. You’re gonna meet her.”

“And there was no sort of thought about what these people were going through. I presume if there had been a psychiatrist there, he would have said, no way. I’m not a psychiatrist, but I’m protecting these people from harm. You do that in a controlled environment, not in the Oval Office with the cameras and henchmen snarling at us and big Secret Service people. I mean, it was terrifying.”

https://youtu.be/sHVgojCRSGg

Camerota showed a clip of Trump talking about the family and Harry Dunn’s death to the press and they continued to discuss the matter. Towards the end of the segment, Sieger called out Robert O’Brien by name.

“I think I somehow found the courage to say to the President, I said, no, Mr. President, this meeting is not happening today in these circumstances. If it happens, it will be back in England when she’s going through the legal process.”

“And Robert O’Brien was sitting right next to him, and he snarled at me,” Sieger said. “She is never going back, never. Straight — you know, I thought we were going down there to maybe find a solution to this horrible problem. And they weren’t interested in finding a solution to anything.”

“They were interested in making — in compounding the situation. I just — I am lost for words this morning. I don’t really know how to process it. I can’t comprehend it. I used to look up to that institution and think that they were all doing good for us. Just a punch of henchmen trying to make him look good is the impression I got. Maybe unfair but that’s the impression I got and that’s how the family feel today, too.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is Political Media Editor

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