CNN anchor Anderson Cooper spoke to Alex Wind, a Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor, on Monday and had him respond to the tweets sent by the president about the shooting.
"I know you definitely feel some anger, understandably, at the FBI," Cooper said after reading one of President Donald Trump's tweets about the Florida shooting.
"I wonder what you think of this tweet and others from the president this week?" he asked.
"You know the first half of that tweet is semi-fine," Wind responded. "The FBI did make a mistake in not investigating Nikolas Cruz further. However, it's insane that he went into detail about Russia."
"This is not about him," he continued, "this is about us, this is about the residents of Parkland."
"Children are dying, and the FBI didn't do anything about it," he concluded, "the president should have said there needs to be changes within the FBI, instead he started talking about Russia and collusion and his campaign."
Florida school shooting survivor on Trump tweet: "The first half of that tweet is semi-fine. The FBI did make a mistake in not investigating (the gunman) further. However, it's insane that he went into detail about Russia. This is not about him" https://t.co/JAT47pWpbo pic.twitter.com/FGACogVUCi
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 20, 2018
"A 19-year-old who can't purchase an alcoholic beverage should not be allowed to purchase an AR-15, a weapon of war, a weapon of destruction," Wind said later in the interview. "It's absolutely absurd."
Trump appeared to blame the FBI's investigation into Russian election interference and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign for their failure in preventing the Florida shooting.
"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter," he tweeted. "This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"
The White House indicated Monday that Trump was willing to support legislation to encourage better cooperation between federal authorities and local law enforcement in an attempt to prevent further shootings.
