The always shameless uber-lefty blogger Charles Pierce of Esquire was a guest on the Thursday edition of MSNBC’s The Last Word and in the course of discussing the deadly community college shooting in Oregon earlier in the day, admitted that he’s “politicizing the hell out of this” shooting and “I don’t care.”
Prior to the public recognition of his flagrant mindset, the former Boston Globe writer declared that the Republican Party “is completely insane” and doesn’t apparently believe in regulations for mines, fixing roads, federal assistance after natural disasters and keeping people safe.
With that foundation, Pierce tried to belittle Republicans by painting the all or nothing image about the party on a variety of issues:
[I]t's the party that, when we have mine disasters, blocks mine regulations. It’s the party that says when we want to fix our roads, you can't have an infrastructure bill, you can't raise the gas tax. It’s the party that when some people have floods, like New Jersey, marks Chris Christie as lousy when he especially accepts help from the federal government and we have the same which has somewhere between 300 and 600 people running for president, none of whom will do anything about the problem of mass shootings in America.
Before turning things back over to O’Donnell, Pierce capped it off with the key phrase: “So, I mean, I'm politicizing the hell out of this and I don't care.”
Also on the panel, The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson praised the President’s remarks as “a very powerful speech” that was “certainly from the heart and the way he worked through this issue and the way he sort of appealed in a very raw way, I think, for people just to listen and pay attention and not let it be routine I thought was extremely effective.”
Following after Pierce’s tirade, O’Donnell brought up a tweet from GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush commenting on the tragedy where he told Twitter he was “[p]raying for the Umpqua Community College, the victims and families impacted by this senseless tragedy” before commenting to anti-NRA journalist Frank Smyth: “[I]t seems in your work on the National Rifle Association, the candidates supported by the National Rifle Association are apparently allowed to do nothing but pray.”
This teed up Smyth to take multiple shots at the Republican Party and anyone who chooses to firmly defend the Second Amendment:
Every candidate in the Republican party running for president accepts the premise put forward by the gun lobby that these national tragedies, as well as the steady drum beat of daily gun violence is the price, the necessary price of freedom, or the gun lobby's interpretation of the Second Amendment. They don't want to say that out loud. They certainly don't want to get into a debate about that. Neither do the politicians in the Republican Party running for president, nor the gun lobby, but this is the view that the gun lobby puts forth and it's what impedes effective gun reform in the United States and I think if we're going to move forward, politicians that seeking the gun reform and the gun reform movement needs to challenge this premise head on.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on October 1 can be found below.
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
October 1, 2015
10:37 p.m. Eastern
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Eugene, the President feared routine in this. He fears exactly what I fear when one of these things happen is how do we come on and treat this as something that is not routine even though it has tragically become routine and the President's comments tonight were far from routine.
THE WASHINGTON POST’s EUGENE ROBINSON: Absolutely and I think you're right. It was a very powerful speech by the President, a lot of it seemed to be extemporaneous, certainly from the heart and the way he worked through this issue and the way he sort of appealed in a very raw way, I think, for people just to listen and pay attention and not let it be routine I thought was extremely effective. I mean, you know, the one step he didn't take was to lay out specifics about what we should do. He said we shouldn't take these things lying down, we shouldn't assume he can do nothing. Okay, once we establish that, one does have to lay out what are we going to do? What will we go for? Is it backgrounds checks? Is it assault weapons ban. Look, we’re going to have to get to specifics too.
(....)
O’DONNELL: Charlie Pierce, your reactions to the events today and the President's speech tonight?
ESQUIRE’s CHARLES PIERCE: Well, I've been doing the politics blog only since the fall of 2011. This, I think, the fourth one of these things I have to write about. You know, I was struck by the last bit from President where he talked about other things we react to. The fact remains we only allow ourselves two political parties in this country and one of our political parties is completely insane and it's the party that, when we have mine disasters, blocks mine regulations. It’s the party that says when we want to fix our roads, you can't have an infrastructure bill, you can't raise the gas tax. It’s the party that when some people have floods, like New Jersey, marks Chris Christie as lousy when he especially accepts help from the federal government and we have the same which has somewhere between 300 and 600 people running for president, none of whom will do anything about the problem of mass shootings in America. So, I mean, I'm politicizing the hell out of this and I don't care.
O’DONNELL: Frank Smyth, there was a response from Jeb Bush tonight, much shorter than President Obama's. It was just a tweet. He said, Jeb Bush said: “Praying for the Umpqua Community College, the victims and families impacted by this senseless tragedy” and Frank Smyth, it seems in your work on the National Rifle Association, the candidates supported by the National Rifle Association are apparently allowed to do nothing but pray.
FRANK SMYTH: Every candidate in the Republican party running for president accepts the premise put forward by the gun lobby that these national tragedies, as well as the steady drum beat of daily gun violence is the price, the necessary price of freedom, or the gun lobby's interpretation of the Second Amendment. They don't want to say that out loud. They certainly don't want to get into a debate about that. Neither do the politicians in the Republican Party running for president, nor the gun lobby, but this is the view that the gun lobby puts forth and it's what impedes effective gun reform in the United States and I think if we're going to move forward, politicians that seeking the gun reform and the gun reform movement needs to challenge this premise head on.
