On Dallas trip, Obama will try to make sense of shootings
WASHINGTON — For President Barack Obama, the decision to return early from an overseas trip after a series of shocking shootings will prove to be easy compared to his next challenge: Comforting an America rattled by the violence.
After arriving from Spain late Sunday, Obama will fly Tuesday to Dallas, the scene of the massacre of police officers that, on the heels of two caught-on-video police shootings, has emerged as a tipping point in the national debate about race and justice.
Obama is due to deliver remarks at an interfaith memorial service and is expected to meet with victims’ families and with local law enforcement officials mourning their own. Former President George W. Bush, his wife, Laura, and Vice-President Joe Biden will also attend, and the ex-president will deliver brief remarks.
To some degree, the trip is a familiar ritual for a president who has embarked in recent years on similar consolation missions with relentless frequency. But it’s clear that Obama views the moment as distinct. In choosing to the deliver a high-profile speech, the president has tasked himself with ministering to Americans as they make sense of a frustrating cloud of issues swirling around the shootings.