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Joe Biden trolled for shedding tears at Texas school memorial: 'Empathy without works is useless'

Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrived in Texas to console the families of the victims of the deadliest Uvalde school shooting

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday, May 29, morning to console the families of the victims of the recent school shooting that killed 19 children and 2 adults on Tuesday, May 24. While leaving a mass service in the town, a spectator called out to the president to "Do something!". “We will,” Biden replied. It was their second time in as many weeks mourning alongside families whose loved ones died in a mass shooting.

The first lady carried a large bouquet of white roses to place in front of the brick Robb Elementary School sign. The Bidens, both dressed in black, stood quietly for a moment in the midday sun. The President made a sign of the cross and shed a tear. After speaking with the school's principal and local officials, Biden and the first lady walked to a row of memorial wreaths, each marking one of the slain children or teachers. They touched cardboard cutouts of each one, their photos on the front circled by white flower garlands, in quiet observation.

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The Bidens attended Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller invited children from the devastated community to sit at the front. "Our response must be one of hope and healing," he said, urging the community to "resolve to support one another with respect for our differences." And later in the afternoon, Biden and the first lady met privately with family members of the victims at Uvalde County Arena.

The White House tweeted about Biden's visit to the memorial site at Robb Elementary School.

However, he got highly criticized and trolled for shedding a tear and showing empathy at Uvalde School Memorial. People held the government accountable for the attack. A user wrote, "Empathy without works is useless".

Another user wrote, "It would seriously be better if he didn’t go. Let the parents grieve. Don’t give them false hope".

One user wrote, "We need change. We need laws that protect the people, not the gun manufacturers. Our government is failing us. Both parties are failing us. It's time for leaders to lead. It's time for voters to use their vote to show we are done with inaction."

Another user trolled him and wrote, "Where will it be his next massacre tour stop?"

The frustration of the angry public could be felt at the memorial site. Some onlookers awaiting Biden began shouting when Texas Republican gov Greg Abbott arrived to accompany the President. "Please Governor Abbott, help Uvalde County," one man was shouting. "We need change. Our children don't deserve this." As Biden was departing, similar cries for help could be heard before he stepped into his vehicle. A day before Biden's visit, he spoke to the parents of the victims about his meeting on Sunday, May 29.

"I'll be heading to Uvalde, Texas, to speak to those families. As I speak, those parents are literally preparing to bury their children, in the United States of America, bury their children. There is too much violence, too much fear, too much grief," Biden told graduates on Saturday, May 28, at the University of Delaware commencement ceremony.

For Biden, the meeting was meant to console the grieving families in their darkest moments. He often draws upon his own experience of losing two children, a young daughter to a car crash and his adult son to brain cancer, to console fellow parents.

"To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There's a hollowness in your chest, and you feel like you're being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out. It's suffocating. And it's never quite the same," Biden said the night of the shooting, speaking from the Roosevelt Room shortly after returning from a two-country visit to Asia.

It is quite evident that the Uvalde School massacre has heated up the debate over gun reforms. The government's carelessness, the police department's wrong decisions, and other issues across the country, and questions have mounted pressure on the Texas Police Department.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Roland Gutierrez, a Texas Democratic state senator was asked whether the country has “a gun problem or a security problem, Gutierrez responded, "This is absolutely a gun problem, and it's all of those things,” he said. Abbott thinks it's a mental health problem. Sure it is. Well, then go fund it properly. We're dead last in mental health funding in the United States. You know, we've got a crisis of infinite proportions in these United States.” “At the end of the day, if we don't have accessibility to militarized weapons, this doesn't happen, just like it doesn't happen in the rest of the world,” he added.