This is what makes Tucker Carlson swoon: Rep. Greg Steube making a mockery of a House hearing designed to curb gun violence by showing off his guns and hate mongering about Democrats.
I wrote about Steube putting his own performative politics over saving children’s lives, one week after 19 elementary school students were slaughtered in Uvalde, Texas, for Crooks and Liars yesterday evening (the post was published today). I’m sure Steube’s stunt was designed with an aim for a Fox News booking. But he hit the jackpot with an invite from Fox’s top America-hating, white supremacist, Tucker Carlson.
Carlson announced, “we’re proud” to have Steube on the show. Then, ignoring the context of the hearing, much less the child slaughter that inspired it, Carlson moved right to demonizing Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who interrupted Steube’s gun show by saying she hoped his gun was not loaded. Democrat Jackson Lee just happens to be Black. It all speaks volumes about Carlson’s priorities.
CARLSON: Congressman, thanks so much for coming on. That was one of the most amazing exchanges, I think, I've ever seen. You're in your own home and Sheila Jackson Lee, tells you to put down the gun. What is this really about?
FACT CHECK: Jackson Lee did not tell Steube to put down the gun, as you can see in the first video below.
Steube at first avoided the prod to attack Jackson Lee and stayed on the subject of guns. “I was trying to highlight to the American people that this isn't just a magazine ban on rifles. This is every single semiautomatic weapon that takes more than a 10-round magazine would be banned, three of which I just happen to have and I showed, to make it very clear that a 10-round magazine doesn't fit in it,” he said. "So, by having the magazine ban, you are effectively banning all of these handguns that millions, hundreds of millions of Americans use every single day to defend themselves, their families, to protect their homesteads.”
But Carlson insisted on more demonization of his fellow Americans. He pretended to be just asking questions. And this time, Steube went for it, to Carlson’s delight.
CARLSON: Why not make it really simple? Why wouldn't Congress require that the laws it passes restricting and banning handguns apply to their own bodyguards? If they're sincere, if high-capacity magazines are dangerous, then why should Sheila Jackson Lee's federally funded bodyguards get to carry them? I'm confused.
STEUBE: Well, and Cori Bush is on that committee and she spends hundreds of thousands of dollars of her campaign money every single year for bodyguards and security. And I can guarantee you, they are using the exact same weapons that … you just highlighted, talked about banning as a quote, "assault rifle" or "assault weapon."
CARLSON: But I mean, but why shouldn't the laws apply to the people who make the laws? It seems like absolutely fairly solid principle.
STEUBE: Oh, they absolutely should. And that's the hypocrisy of the left. Joe Biden has all the security, Nancy Pelosi has all the security. The Capitol Police have all this security yet, they want everyday Americans like you and me, at our homes, at our businesses, as we drive, some of us that have conceal carry permits to not be able to use the very weapons that we can utilize to protect our homes, our families, and our loved ones, and that's exactly what this is all about.
CARLSON: Yes, it's time to say no, and thank you for doing that. Appreciate it. Congressman Greg Steube of Florida, west coast of Florida.
Neither uttered a peep of concern about protecting Americans or American children from being slaughtered with assault weapons.
You can watch Steube use yesterday’s gun hearing to show off his home arsenal below, via Crooks and Liars. Underneath, you can see Carlson delight in using it to promote his Murdoch-funded war on America, from the June 3, 2022 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
What does distinguish the USA from other developed countries is easy access to weapons. The crazies are out there, everywhere, but it’s a whole lot easier for American crazies to get their hands on a semi-automatic with which to lash out at the world.
I resent the deviation of attention towards mental health because that’s the classical GOPer way to avoid doing anything that will actually work in the short term (and they certainly won’t vote for any spending on it). An immediate impact can be obtained by banning assault rifles and by making it harder to get one’s hands on any other type of gun. Other countries have already done it (e.g. Australia, New Zealand).
Getting the guns out of the hands of the crazies, NOW, is, of course, only the first step but I’m pretty pessimistic about the likelihood of seeing any major financing for mental health in a country that’s still struggling with the task of facilitating access to health care in general.
What they are actually saying (without realising it) is that the USA is like a lunatic asylum where only a few of the inmates are dangerous to others. Rather than do everything to stop the dangerous ones from going amuck, the GOPers want to make it even easier for them to get their hands on weapons. The mind boggles.
