On Sunday, following a week marked by President’s Trump’s multiple flip-flops on gun rights and due process, the panel on ABC’s This Week fortified liberal calls for gun control with one appearing to openly argue for ignoring the Second Amendment and to confiscate firearms. And on top of that, one CNN employee toed the company line and defended their disaster of a gun control town hall and begged people to listen to the radical children demanding gun bans.
In the middle of a discussion of the President’s turbulent week, including his about-face on backing Democratic gun control measures, former Bloomberg editor Megan Murphy seemed to demand Australian-style gun confiscations, which would be unconstitutional, to curtail gun rights in this country.
“Let's unpack this confiscation and due process. Let’s not allow the NRA to wrap themselves with the only constitutional mantel as if that exists,” Murphy angrily spat. “Other countries have implemented program toss take back weapons that are particularly dangerous that have been used in mass shootings, that have been used to kill first-graders, teenagers, et cetera. There are programs in place.”
Murphy was obviously bitter that the right to own a gun was codified in the constitution and seemed to suggest that lawmakers just ignore it all together. “Let’s not do as we’ve done so many times before by saying: the Second Amendment, due process, constitutional rights,” she ranted while touting the radical anti-gun kids that had become liberal media darlings.
Faux-Republican Matthew Dowd backed up Murphy by regaling the panel with a tale of how he had gone on a “hog hunt” with some of his gun-toting Texas friends. According to him, even they wanted some form of gun control. “The NRA doesn't speak for most of Americans. The NRA doesn’t even speak for most gun owners. The NRA speaks for a small subsection that has drawn a line that says you can no restrictions,” he chided.
Megan McCain, from ABC’s The View, was the only person on the panel speaking any sense when she stood up to Dowd and Murphy’s improbable proposal. “I actually disagree with you, Matt. The NRA does speak for me in a lot of ways. I'm a proud NRA member,” she explained as she described her disappointment with Trump’s flipping. “And for me, the sincerity of where he stands in his political convictions has always come into question, but particularly now when you're talking about things like the Second Amendment, which, I’m sorry, unlike Australia isn't going to evaporate into thin air.”
Dowd tried to lure McCain into a petty “tit-for-tat” in regards to if the NRA actually represented her, but she didn’t fall for it and instead talked about how CNN’s town hall really harmed the discussion:
I was offended that way Dana Loesch was has been treated at the CNN town hall and a lot of different places. And what happens is that it makes a lot of people like me very tribal over our guns and over the Second Amendment and over things like that. And we’re talking about situations where you’re saying, “no due process, we’re just going to take the guns and talk about it later.”
CNN’s Van Jones was on hand to put up the company’s defense of the out of control program. “And I do want to say those young people are just extraordinary. I mean you've had a year adults acting like children and now the children are acting like adults in trying to get something done,” he opined.
It’s unclear what town hall he was watching or what kids he had been listening to because they have been anything but adult. Every time they’re in front of a camera they do nothing but sling liberal talking points about Republicans having blood on their hands and NRA bribing them with blood money.
McCain gave Jones a much-needed reality check by reminding him “they’re demonizing legal gun owners.” From there the discussion was derailed by Dowd who was gushing about how Democratic Women and kids were looking to unseat Republicans.
ABC
This Week
March 4, 2018
9:43:11 PM Eastern [4 minutes 8 seconds](…)
MEGAN MURPHY: Let's unpack this confiscation and due process. Let’s not allow the NRA to wrap themselves with the only constitutional mantel as if that exists. Other countries have implemented program toss take back weapons that are particularly dangerous that have been used in mass shootings, that have been used to kill first-graders, teenagers, et cetera. There are programs in place. 97 percent of this country wants background checks. A substantial majority wants tighter gun control. Let’s not do as we’ve done so many times before by saying: the Second Amendment, due process, constitutional rights. This is the time, if there's one thing this week, a week of worry, a week of turmoil, a week of chaos, but a week where children and teenagers have stepped forward and say enough is enough. Things may finally change. And this may be the week we remember for that.
MATTHEW DOWD: As the gun owning Texan at the table, where I have five rifles, and I went hog hunting last week in Texas with a whole group of guys, all of whom are gun carrying Texans. All of them say, “why can't we get this done?” The problem with the NRA-- The NRA doesn't speak for most of Americans. The NRA doesn’t even speak for most gun owners. The NRA speaks for a small subsection that has drawn a line that says you can no restrictions, which of course the Supreme Court has never said. The Supreme Court has said you can have reasonable restrictions in this.
It all goes back to a president -- I was thinking about this on Oscar night, tonight. Who does this president most remind me of in a movie? And the best one I can come up to is Charles Foster Cain from "Citizen Cain" in this. In the way he acts, in how isolated he has become, in his behavior. And the only thing I could think is maybe we should go down to Mar-a-Lago and see if there's a sled with rose bud on it. It would really explain it.
[crosstalk]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But David, in the meantime, you've might agree with this Meghan. If the President has now decided he's not going to follow through on what he said to the Democrats on Wednesday on guns, on universal background checks, on raising the age – not it’s just a “concept” – it’s not going to happen.
MEGHAN MCCAIN: I actually disagree with you, Matt. The NRA does speak for me in a lot of ways. I'm a proud NRA member. And I do think that it’s confusing when the President had such huge ardent support from NRA members, spoke at the NRA convention, even though secretly all of us thought he was an upper-east-side liberal that didn’t have a whole lot of experience in gun country like the rest of us.
It's like Ben Sasse said, it’s whoever has his ear last. And for me, the sincerity of where he stands in his political convictions has always come into question, but particularly now when you're talking about things like the Second Amendment, which, I’m sorry, unlike Australia isn't going to evaporate into thin air. And I do think going forward, it raises questions about what's going to happen with his base because it is making a lot of people that I know –
DOWD: But Meghan, the NRA doesn’t speak for you.
(…)
MCCAIN: I’m going into a tit-for-tat on what we do or don’t believe. I was offended that way Dana Loesch was has been treated at the CNN town hall and a lot of different places. And what happens is that it makes a lot of people like me very tribal over our guns and over the Second Amendment and over things like that. And we’re talking about situations where you’re saying, “no due process, we’re just going to take the guns and talk about it later.”
DOWD: That’s the President.
MCCAIN: I know, but it makes people like me very paranoid.
DOWD: But no Democrat ever has said: “take the guns.” And no Democrat has said, “get rid of all guns.”
MCCAIN: Yeah, we have a president doing it who’s supposed to be a Republican! It’s even worse Matt!
(crosstalk)
VAN JONES: You mentioned our town hall. And I do want to say those young people are just extraordinary. I mean you've had a year adults acting like children and now the children are acting like adults in trying to get something done. You've may not like everything they say, or everything they want, but the fact that you have young people in this country willing to stand up and call it like it is.
I went to high school. The worst thing that happened to in high school was late homework and some bullies. I never had to hide under my desk and drill so that I didn’t have my brains blown out all over my classroom. That's happening in every classroom in America. So you have a generation of young people that we need to stand with and listen to very carefully because the police and young, who are on the front lines, are saying the same thing about guns.
MCCAIN: They’re demonizing legal gun owners.
(…)
