He is a coward. Any decent President would have come out (in his case, from hiding to) to greet and thank such a group of great American citizens, and taken it as an HONOR to do so, that such as they came to the House where the President of these United States lives by their graces and deeds.
You might remember the year of 1970 when president Nixon had gone out to mingle with the demonstrators and chat with them.
“Nixon says he woke up shortly after 4 a.m., went into the Lincoln sitting room, and began listening to a record of Eugene Ormandy conducting a Rachmaninoff piece. (Several already-released tapes of Nixon phone conversations feature classical music blaring in the background at rock n’ roll volume.) The loud music awakened White House valet Manolo Sanchez, and as Nixon looked out the window at a small knot of people gathering outside on the National Mall, he asked his valet if he had had ever been to the Lincoln Memorial at night. When Sanchez replied no, Nixon impulsively told him, “Get your clothes on, we’ll go down to the Lincoln Memorial!””