George Zimmerman is accusing President Obama of insincerity for weeping over mass shooting victims one day ago.
“He made an announcement — I think when I saw it all I can think is crocodile tears,” Zimmerman, who shot and killed a black teenager in 2012, told TMZ.
{mosads}“The man is a disgrace to the country, he’s a disgrace to the armed forces,” Zimmerman said late Tuesday while leaving a shooting range near Orlando.
“He stood there and pretended to cry and mentioned mass shootings and conveniently left out Fort Hood,” he said, referencing a 2009 incident at the Texas military base that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 more. “What a piece of garbage.”
“What a piece of garbage,” he added.
“I watched enough to get sick over watching it. That’s Obama – he’s trying to abuse the executive privilege and turn America into a dictatorship again, you know?”
Obama shed tears Tuesday while remembering 20 children killed during the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
“Every time I think about those kids, it gets me angry,” Obama said. “And, by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.”
Obama’s new gun control measures make firearms sales at gun shows and online vendors subject to federal background checks. They also beef up personnel for enforcing current restrictions and request extra funding for mental healthcare.
The president’s display of emotion has come under scrutiny by conservatives since his unilateral actions a day ago.
Fox News contributor Andrea Tantaros, for example, suggested he could have used a “raw onion” to produce tears.
GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, meanwhile, defended the display as “sincere” early Wednesday.
Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, during a February 2012 confrontation that sparked national outrage over guns and race. He was acquitted of second-degree murder in July 2013.
Since then, he has had several brushes with the law, including a 2015 arrest on suspicion of aggravated assault and domestic violence with a weapon, and another for pointing a gun at two black teenagers in Ferguson, Mo., while leaving a Dunkin’ Donuts.