With Donald Trump’s inauguration less than 48 hours away, much of the world’s attention is focused squarely on Washington.
Hosting her prime time CNN program from America’s capital city, on Wednesday evening Erin Burnett welcomed Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, for an interview, and the topic of conversation moved to Betsy DeVos.
Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Devos grabbed headlines earlier this week by suggesting certain US schools ought to keep firearms on hand to protect from the threat of grizzly bears.
In response, Murphy seemed not to know how to react.
“I mean it’s sort of, on one hand laughable and the other hand tragic,” he told Burnett.
He said he was shocked at Devos’ overall stance on gun control as it intersects with education.
“I was pretty stunned when she couldn’t articulate just some compassion for what schools are going through, when we have had in some years an average of one school shooting every week.”
Murphy’s state was the site of the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook school shooting, and the issue of firearms in schools has come up often since.
“The idea that we are going to potentially put somebody into the Department of Education who believes that it’s OK for guns to be in our schools, for teachers to be armed, boy I think that sends shivers down the spine of almost every parent in this country,” said Murphy.