Just prior to and after Monday’s late press conference from Nashville law enforcement on the deadly school shooting at Covenant School, MSNBC’s Deadline: White House was running on all cylinders and fueled by a disturbing penchant for incitement on their part of their audience against conservatives.
Among the charges leveled on a show that could be dubbed Rich, White, Liberal, Wine Mom Story Hour, panelists blamed conservatives and Republicans for the shooting, claiming without evidence that their “gun culture” has shown they want “to see” shooting happen seeing as how they’re David Koresh-supporting “monsters” filled with “selfishness.”
Host Nicolle Wallace started the second hour by telling deranged former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi that Republicans encouraged an atmosphere of school shootings seeing as how there are members of Congress “who wear AR-15-style pins on their lapels,” “celebrate” the guns used in such attacks while nonetheless possessing “enthusiasm for the gun culture.”
Figliuzzi went further by insisting people want to see attacks: “You’re right. It’s not — it’s worse than doing nothing. It’s worse than being neutral on the issue. They actually fight to see these things happen. That’s the bottom line.”
He added that state laws mean very little as “the weakest link in the picture is the nearest state that allows you to purchase” any gun that might be banned in a neighboring state.
Princeton professor and MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude started down the right path by noting “something about us is broken” before proving, well, we’re going down the wrong path as a people by accusing Second Amendment supporters of being “monsters who are so selfish about their guns” who want to “allow for the condition that will take...babies away from us.”
MSNBC analyst and Showtime host John Heilemann tied the shooting (which the world soon learned was committed by a transgender person enraged with the conservative Christian school she used to attend) to Saturday’s Trump rally in Waco, Texas.
Worse yet, Heilemann argued those who support/own the AR-15 back the deranged, child-raping David Koresh (click “expand”):
I was at Waco this weekend. We’re going to talk about that a little later. But, you know, there are a lot of things — if you walk around in the area where they’re selling the merch, the right-wing merch there, there are a lot of things that are disturbing. Among the many things that are disturbing about that — about things in that culture, one of them is the thing you talked about earlier, which is the celebration of guns. So many t-shirts that say things like "not vaccinated" and then a picture of an AR-15, "fully protected," you know. Just everywhere, man. There are so many of these celebratory things
(....)
[T]here’s a culture out there. Obviously, we know the story of what happened at Waco. How did Waco start? Waco started because David Koresh was building machine guns out of AR-15s, taking semi-automatic weapons, making them machine guns and it was when ATF saw evidence of that and the fact that David Koresh was raping young girls that they decided to try to make a move on Waco and that’s what started the whole 51-day siege. And those people are heroes now on the right. David Koresh and the assault, the Waco, the Branch Davidians are now, you know — we’ll talk about this more later. But that’s how deep it goes. And it’s not new.
Following the press conference in which it was revealed the shooter was transgender, planned the attack, and left both a manifesto and plans for the attack, Wallace cued up Uvalde, Texas-area State Senator Roland Gutierrez (D), who argued “Republicans choose the killers over the kids. They choose guns over the kids. We’ve got to do something.”
The show would quickly move back to its favorite obsession in Donald Trump, but not before Glaude took more shots at gun owners and ignored the shooter’s motivations.
Instead, it wasn’t the shooter to blame. Instead, such shootings occur because of “unbridled greed,” “selfishness,” and “indifference” of gun rights supporters (click “expand”):
I’ve got three things that come to mind, Nicolle. Greed, unbridled greed that overruns any notion of the public good. Gun manufacturers. I’m thinking about selfishness. Don’t take away my guns even though these families are losing their babies, even though people are being shot with bump stocks and weapons of war, I still have the right to my gun. To be damned you’re dead. Selfishness. Selfishness. The second. The third, indifference. Well, it’s not my baby.
I’m safe where I am and so, when you combine greed, selfishness and indifference, democracy cannot survive. We’re broken. And so, we have to address the cultural background as we address the policy issue. We’ve got to get the guns under control. But we’ve also got to get the fact that we are not committed to a notion of the public good. And why is that the case? Why is that the case? I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it.
Wallace agreed: “[I]t’s the third one that scares me the most. Indifference. I can talk to someone who disagrees with me passionately. But the — the blankness of indifference I think is what endangers all of us.”
MSNBC’s vile and dangerous rhetoric toward people who’ve committed the crime of holding differing political views was made possible thanks to the backing of advertisers such as Hughesnet, Progressive, and Qunol. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from March 27, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
March 27, 2023
5:05 p.m. EasternNICOLLE WALLACE: And Frank, it’s not just that we don’t do anything. There are at least three Republican members of Congress who celebrate these weapons Mary is talking about, who wear AR-15-style pins on their lapels. We have something more than inaction. It’s not a gridlock problem. It’s an enthusiasm for the gun culture on the right.
FRANK FIGLIUZZI: You’re right. It’s not — it’s worse than doing nothing. It’s worse than being neutral on the issue. They actually fight to see these things happen. That’s the bottom line. And look, you know, states have tried individually to do the right thing, but until we have a national law that impacts the ability to access assault-style weapons, we’re not going to get our hands around this problem, because the weakest link in the picture is the nearest state that allows you to purchase this. And don’t be surprised if this 28-year-old woman was lawfully in possession of these two assault-style rifles and the handgun. We don’t know yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she did the right thing, went through the background check. So, the problem is no longer hey, we need to enforce the rules in place. Yes, we do. Of course. Right? And we try to do that with an ATF that is woefully understaffed. It is ludicrous to think that something like 3,000 special agents are going to cover the nation when we have more guns than people. And they’re going to enforce existing law?
(....)
5:10 p.m. Eastern
EDDIE GLAUDE: I think something about us is broken and we won’t — we won’t acknowledge it. It’s not just simply about the guns. It’s about us. The guns, of course, make it worse. But we’re broken. And it’s not just simply those who have AR-15 on their lapels, Nicolle. It is the fact that we don’t fight like hell against them. You know, it’s like we just — I mean, three babies. I couldn’t imagine Langston at nine not coming home from school. I couldn’t imagine that. And the fact that we don’t fight like hell, me and you, every — like, we go through this and then we say what we say and then we go back to our lives and they have to breathe grief every day again. It’s like we’re not fighting for the kind of world we want. And these monsters who are so selfish around their guns — right — continue to allow for the condition that will take a Hallie, a William, take these three babies away from us. I’m sorry, I’m just trying to process it. It doesn’t — it goes beyond just simply the guns. It goes to us. We’re broken because it keeps happening over and over again.
WALLACE: I don’t know what else to say other than what Eddie just articulated. I mean, because the statistics, as Mary and Frank detailed them, are right in front of our face. And they’re in front of our face before we come to work and switch everything that we’re going to talk about. You know, you weren’t booked to talk about the latest school shooting and three nine-year-olds who lost their lives because they went to third grade today. But here we are.
(....)
5:12 p.m. Eastern
JOHN HEILEMANN: I was at Waco this weekend. We’re going to talk about that a little later. But, you know, there are a lot of things — if you walk around in the area where they’re selling the merch, the right-wing merch there, there are a lot of things that are disturbing. Among the many things that are disturbing about that — about things in that culture, one of them is the thing you talked about earlier, which is the celebration of guns. So many t-shirts that say things like "not vaccinated" and then a picture of an AR-15, "fully protected," you know. Just everywhere, man. There are so many of these celebratory things. I had a kid — I couldn’t say what his age was but he was not 18. Probably — I think — we didn’t put him on camera because he was too young, might have been 11, who wanted to show me his t-shirt. And he had a whole long — a whole long screed on the back of the t-shirt, printed t-shirt, a thing that was sold in mass quantities that was about protecting the Second Amendment and how essentially it was a long political screed that basically said, if we don’t all have our guns, America won’t be America anymore. He’s about 12, and he was very proud. He wanted me to read it. Look at the back of my t-shirt, you know. I don’t blame that kid. But that’s — there’s a culture out there. Obviously, we know the story of what happened at Waco. How did Waco start? Waco started because David Koresh was building machine guns out of AR-15s, taking semi-automatic weapons, making them machine guns and it was when ATF saw evidence of that and the fact that David Koresh was raping young girls that they decided to try to make a move on Waco and that’s what started the whole 51-day siege. And those people are heroes now on the right. David Koresh and the assault, the Waco, the Branch Davidians are now, you know — we’ll talk about this more later. But that’s how deep it goes. And it’s not new.
(....)
5:28 p.m. Eastern
TEXAS STATE SENATOR ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D): There is mental health problems all over this country, all over the world, as one of your previous speakers suggested. But we have no gun laws. It’s not to say that we have weak gun laws. Our gun laws are so weak that a 12- year-old has a t-shirt that says, I deserve to have my weapons of mass destruction, I deserve to have my AR-15. We have a giant problem in this country. And from here on out, people are going to have to think about every day that they send their little kids to school that this may be the last time because politicians in Washington and in every legislature refuse to do anything. Eric Swalwell said it best. Republicans choose the killers over the kids. They choose guns over the kids. We’ve got to do something.
(....)
5:36 p.m. Eastern
WALLACE: So, Eddie, I’m back to you. And where you started that we are broken. An eight-year-old and two nine-year-olds likely weren’t even alive when the shooter attended the school. But they lost — they were murdered today along with three — at least one janitor and two educators or administrators at the school and long after we’re done talking about Nashville, because they’ve moved on to somewhere else, Buffalo, or Uvalde, or Parkland, or Newtown, or Montgomery Park, whoever has the misfortune of coming next. These families will still be broken. They will have still stopped time today. This will be the beginning of something totally different that they’ve never known before.
GLAUDE: Yeah. And they join the company of a whole host of other families as well, right? I was just thinking about the shooter, the killer, thinking about how clinging to hate, we cling to it because we don’t want to deal with our pain and it can make us monstrous. I’m also thinking about what John said. And I think our brokenness explains our policy failures and I’ve got three things that come to mind, Nicolle. Greed, unbridled greed that overruns any notion of the public good. Gun manufacturers. I’m thinking about selfishness. Don’t take away my guns even though these families are losing their babies, even though people are being shot with bump stocks and weapons of war, I still have the right to my gun. To be damned you’re dead. Selfishness. Selfishness. The second. The third, indifference. Well, it’s not my baby. I’m safe where I am and so, when you combine greed, selfishness and indifference, democracy cannot survive. We’re broken. And so, we have to address the cultural background as we address the policy issue. We’ve got to get the guns under control. But we’ve also got to get the fact that we are not committed to a notion of the public good. And why is that the case? Why is that the case? I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it.
WALLACE: Me too. And it’s the third one that scares me the most. Indifference. I can talk to someone who disagrees with me passionately. But the — the blankness of indifference I think is what endangers all of us.
