Michelle Malkin visited Fox & Friends Weekend this morning where the Curvy Couch Crew asked her about the National Rifle Association’s bizarre press conference yesterday. It was so bizarre that even conservatives panned it. But Malkin used the occasion to smear her political foes with her usual inflammatory rhetoric – and at the same time whine that this immediate aftermath of the Newtown massacre should be a time of “sober reflection” and inclusive discussion.
Host Dave Briggs opened with the comment that there is “not exactly a tremendous amount of support for what (NRA head) Wayne LaPierre said” yesterday before asking Malkin how LaPierre’s comments had gone down in Colorado.
Malkin said there’s “a lot of support for many of the ideas but they have faced what I call the post-Newtown witch hunt.” She later said:
This should be a time of sober reflection and an inclusive time for EVERY American with a diverse viewpoint in the national conversation about gun violence, about the culture, and somehow so many people, particularly in the crazed, anti-gun liberal media have demonized the NRA and its millions of law-abiding, peaceful gun owners who are practicing their constitutionally-protected Second Amendment rights.
Way to lead by example, Michelle!
Co-host Clayton Morris used the opening to play “liberal media” victim. He whined that the media called LaPierre a “loon” and that “many conservatives” felt that, as a result, a “reasoned discussion” was missing from the press conference. However, even he noted that “some conservatives” called the event “tone deaf” because “it didn’t address assault rifles and anything else other than attacks on the media.”
Malkin said “Second Amendment” groups are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. With more "sober, inclusive reflection," she added,
For a week you had a lot of hypocritical attacks and a lot of these zealots who criticize them for maintaining what I thought was a very respectful silence in the immediate aftermath of the massacre. And then when they do come forth with some very practical ideas, ideas that have worked… they’re ridiculed for it. Why aren’t these same people, why aren’t these same people ridiculing Barbara Boxer, for example, who has proposed using the National Guard to try and make schools more secure?
Eyes wide with hostility, she attacked celebrities who hire armed guards and then “go after” the NRA. “There’s this attitude of ‘armed guard for me but not for thee,’ she sneered.
But even co-host Alisyn Camerota acknowledged that while it would be “nice to have a rational national discussion,” and that LaPierre “raised many good points,” LaPierre had bombed. “I think what people were objecting to with him was the tone. People were hoping for something perhaps more of a compromise, more conciliatory, (Briggs broke in to say “more consoling”) and his tone was basically that he was drawing a line in the sand,” she said.
“Yeah, it’s a difficult position to be in,” Malkin said. “They’ve been under fire. They’re under fire by left-wing media, now they’re under fire by some outlets that have been perceived as conservative. I think that there’s this impulse to throw many of my allies on the right under the bus when we’re in a panic.”
But now Malkin changed her tune:
Which is why I always recommend after these awful, awful events that sometimes sobriety and silence is the best course of action. We’ve all been so completely overwhelmed. You know, we have to put on our pundit hats… I hate this part of the job, where people feel like they’ve got to fill the airwaves and score political points. My God, this community is still going to have to be holding funeral after funeral while the rest of the country is celebrating Christmas. Instead of a national conversation, sometimes I really think we just need to have a national pause. And have people just get their heads straight around it before they speak and certainly before they act.
If Malkin truly wanted a rational discussion, she could have simply said so, added that she thought the NRA was in a bad spot and suggested whatever course she recommended be taken. Instead, she added to the very divisiveness and hypocrisy she was decrying in others. Apparently for Malkin, it’s, “National pause for thee but not for me.”
Not surprisingly, none of the hosts challenged her on that.
… not shown up. You can’t have a “rational discussion” with someone who
- defends the illegal internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII
- thinks the children of immigrants born on US soil should not be granted automatic citizenship rights (apparently forgetting that includes her)
- believes all immigrants, regardless of status, should be subject to arrest, internment, and deportation based on appearance, in the interest of national security
Gotta love the rightwingttocracy: no matter how big a tragedy befalls someone else, they can always find a way to make themselves the victim . . .
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Several of the comments are pretty snarky and sarcastic, most of which have their basis in LaPierre’s insane comments.
From the poster Harmonicon: He must have been mentally ill. Clearly there should be a national database of those with mental illness. That would prevent such tragedies.
Poster nilram: Clearly, there should be a policeman in every grandfather’s house.
Poster scootaloo: Clearly it was because the toddler played Call of Duty while on antidepressants!
Poster Jackpine radical: This wouldn’t have happened if there had been an armed Good Guy…
Poster Android3.14: If that toddler had read the 10 commandments this wouldn’t have happened. It’s obvious that there is a direct link between the violence in the media, the lack of prayer in schools, and this child’s death. Thank you NRA for opening my eyes.
EVERY SINGLE ONE of those comments is directly pulled from LaPierre’s “solutions” to the Newtown Massacre.
I wonder what Ms Malangnagannangganangananan’s reaction to this toddler’s death will be?
If LaPierre is such an ardent supporter of “conceal carry” laws, what does he think will happen at a mere press conference?
I really wish someone had gone into the press conference with a concealed (but unloaded) weapon and then pulled it on LaPierre. I am just that sick of LaPierre and his constant apologetics for the gun lobby. There is simply NO reason at all for the NRA to support all the types of weapons it does. Sportsmen don’t need them. Ordinary people don’t need them. (And if they’re going to pull this paranoid “we need them to protect ourselves against the gov’t if it becomes a tyranny” BS, then I feel that I should also have the right to keep tanks and even a nuke in my home. After all, the gov’t has those “arms,” so why shouldn’t I?)