Calling in to Monday’s Today show, Las Vegas shooting eyewitness Russell Bleck praised police for their response to the tragic attack and criticized some of the recent National Anthem protests in the NFL: “I mean, just God bless the police officers. I mean, in a world where everyone’s kneeling, these guys stood up and took – I mean, they knew what they were against and they ran towards the danger with just handguns. I mean, that’s real bravery right there.”
Co-host Savannah Guthrie replied: “It is.” Bleck continued: “They saved – I mean, there’s no telling how many they saved. Every second was a life lost. He was just spraying the crowd of tens of thousands of people.”
Here is a transcript of the October 2 exchange:
7:22 AM ET
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RUSSELL BLECK [LAS VEGAS SHOOTING EYEWITNESS]: I mean honestly, I don’t think there is a person in Las Vegas that’s not affected by this in some way. We’re a pretty close-knit community. I mean, just God bless the police officers. I mean, in a world where everyone’s kneeling, these guys stood up and took – I mean, they knew what they were against and they ran towards the danger with just handguns. I mean, that’s real bravery right there.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: It is.
BLECK: They saved – I mean, there’s no telling how many they saved. Every second was a life lost. He was just spraying the crowd of tens of thousands of people. I mean, if you fired into that crowd, you were going to hit something. I keep seeing the total rise and it just makes me so sick.
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