Morning MSNBC: GOP Just Evil ‘Second Amendment Fundamentalists’

This Tuesday marks the first week of 21 victims killed in the Uvalde mass shooting. On MSNBC’s Morning JoeLike many media outlets, it is still the most important topic of conversation about the consequences of the disaster. They teamed up this time with New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb to decry “Second Amendment fundamentalists” and political “zealotry” on the right.

Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist once again led the conversations on the show, leaving viewers feeling more inclined to listen. Surprisingly, Joe Scarborough made only a brief appearance via video chat.

Throughout the duration of this miniscule appearance, he repeated the same things that he has been ranting about for the past seven days: The Republicans are too cowardly to stand up to the NRA, Mitch McConnell “never gets too far from the Republican caucus”, the right loves to politicize this gun issue, Governor Abbott and Senator Cruz are the bad guys, and the GOP is always taking the blame away from guns regarding these issues.

Scarborough’s ranting was expanded on during Geist’s interview with Cobb when talking about his most recent article titled “The Atrocity of American Gun Culture.” In his article, Cobb criticized officials’ “political cowardice” and “sham of public displays of sympathy” when they are taking zero actions to prevent future tragedies. He further blamed “Second Amendment fundamentalists and politicians who translate their zealotry into law” for the lack of action.

Geist asked Cobb, “so when people say it shouldn’t be political, you say what?” Cobb answered by exclaiming that this issue is definitely “inherently political” and called out officials’ acts of “moral cowardice.” He gave examples of Ted Cruz, and “other people who were on the podium during that first press conference telling people not to politicize what was happening.”

He additionally blamed “public policy” and the “lobbyists and politicians who do their bidding” for the shooting and other past shootings.

Host of MSNBC’s You are way too youngJonathan Lemire had also a question to ask the staff writer. He talked about President Biden by expressing how he “played the role once again of Consoler-in-Chief with his trips to Buffalo and Texas” and asked Cobb “How do you want to hear him frame this issue, this American tragedy with guns?”

Cobb responded by saying that “we could publish an anthology of eulogies presidents have delivered under these circumstances,” criticizing past presidents’ useless “thoughts and prayers” dynamic that has never brought about effective gun policy change.

He praised Biden, saying that “he has done a good job of framing this conversation”, saying that the empathetic part of his personality is what appealed to voters.

Cobb seemed to forget that Biden was not the only politician that displays this empathy publicly. Politicians love showing empathy towards other people. This is why career politicians are elected. Biden’s experience is the same as those of his predecessors. So why do you award him a star for this?

Lincoln TV and Sling TV sponsored this example of bias media.

Click “expand to see the Transcript”

MSNBC’s Morning Joe

05/31/2022

Eastern, 8:03:55

WILLIE GEIST: Let’s bring into the conversation staff writer at ‘The New Yorker’ Jelani Cobb. He’s the incoming Dean at Columbia University’s School of Journalism and senior editor at ‘The Dispatch’, David French. He is a columnist for ‘The Atlantic’. 

Gentleman, good morning to you both, I want to read from your respective pieces, Jelani in your recent op-ed titled ‘The Atrocity of American Gun Culture’, you write this quote “In a single ten-day stretch, 44 people were murdered in mass shootings throughout the country. A carnival of violence that confirmed, among other things, the political cowardice of a large portion of our elected leadership, the thin pretense of our moral credibility and the sham of public displays of sympathy that translate into no actual changes in laws, our culture or our murderous propensities. 

The circumstances that make mass murder of fourth graders possible are inherently political. Political access is granted to weapons. These things are not political to the most prominent people who refuse to accept them as such. Some of this is on Second Amendment fundamentalists and politicians who translate their zealotry into law–the rest is on every one of us who has yet to find the courage to stop it.”

That was a portion of Jelani’s piece in ‘The New Yorker’, so Jelani I will let you flesh that out and add some context. The polling we saw again last week that shows almost nine out of ten Americans want universal background checks, even two-thirds of Americans in the Politico say we should outlaw these semi-automatic assault-style rifles that are so often used in these mass shootings, so when people say it shouldn’t be political, you say what?

JELANI COBB It is inherently political. The culmination of political choices is what we’re going to be looking at. The shooter here, in Charleston, and in Buffalo were able to access these powerful weapons because of the possible policy.

If you claim that people are guilty of explicitly political acts, the Senator Ted Cruz response, which you also heard, was from Uvalde’s mayor. Then, there was the second press conference, where other speakers told you not to politicize the event. It was an astonishing statement, I believe, of moral cowardice.

Jelani: So, how can we get past that? Let’s try to be constructive this morning. We’ve got a total disconnect between what appears the American people want done around the issue of guns and what leaders in Washington are willing to do on guns. We need to shift that dynamic.

COBB? I’m not sure how to change that dynamic. That’s because in a democratic system, we are supposed to have the will and power of the people translated into legislation. But we’ve actually seen that stymied by the influence of a small number of people, lobbyists and politicians who do their bidding and so on.

 But I have to say one thing about background checks and the other kinds of small measures that people are now touting, we’re now relieved of the possibility, the frail possibility of making small changes for gigantic problems. These are not the things that will save fourth graders from being shot with an AR-15.

…

8:11:36 a.m.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Hey Jelani good morning, it’s Jonathan Lemire there’s no question in a moment like this- actions mean more than words. This is what victims’ families tell us, it comes from civic groups and many Americans. Words matter, but only to a certain extent. You would like to hear what President Biden has to say about this issue. He played the consoler-in chief role with recent trips to Texas and Buffalo. What do you expect from him? Is this the American tragedy that you would like to see him address?

COBB: Well, we don’t have the luxury of publishing an entire anthology on the eulogies Presidents have written under such conditions. Many of Joe Biden’s voters liked the fact that he broadcast empathy over his personality and how he ran his political office.

He has made a great job framing the conversation and talking empathically, asking for help, and putting the moral burden on Congress to do something. Problem is whether that translate into any actual activity. The problem is that we haven’t witnessed any substantive change in the situation we are dealing with despite the rhetoric of presidents who dealt with this topic.