During the 26 hours the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives conducted a “sit-in” in an unsuccessful attempt to force Republican leaders of the chamber to allow votes on oppressive gun control measures, one group received effusive praise from the officials for the coverage of the situation.
Not surprisingly, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina started his remarks by saying: “Let me begin by thanking the media,” which led to whoops, cheers and a standing ovation from the Democrats who were still in the chamber even though the Republican leaders had turned off all microphones and cameras.
Instead, Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat from California, used video from the Periscope live screening app to broadcast their message outside the building to people across the country.
Of course, the protest comes in the wake of a mass shooting at a night club in Orlando, Florida, which claimed the lives of 49 people and injured 53 other patrons.
According to an article by T. Becket Adams in the Washington Examiner website, pro-gun control Democrats shouted "No bill, no break" as they took control of the chamber Wednesday while the House was out of session, with many standing or sitting on the floor.
Senate Democrats soon joined the protest, Adams noted.
"Today stands out as a great example of what we mean when we talk about a free press and why we need one,” the African-American Democrat declared. “We have some people conspiring to even shut that down."
"But thanks to them," Clyburn said, motioning towards reporters in the press gallery, "the American people got to look in on and listen to what has taken place on this floor."
“Let me say just a couple of things,” he continued. “When I ... finished high school and went away to college back in 1957, … my full intentions were to follow my father into the ministry, but I was always told you have to be called, and I kept listening,” he said to laughter from his colleagues.
Clyburn continued:
After getting out of jail for the third time, I decided that that wasn't working too well, so I went home to share with my Dad the fact that I was changing my mind, and I was not going to go to the seminary.
I thought my father would be very upset, and probably he was, but my Dad said to me on that day: “Well, son,” he said, “I suspect the world would much rather see a sermon than to hear one.”
“What we have seen today is a fulfillment of what my father said to me over 50 years ago,” he stated. “We have come to the floor of this House to allow the people of this great country to see a good, productive sermon in our work. And I thank each and every one of you for participating.”
“Now someone asked me earlier whether or not we were going to retire for the evening,” Clyburn noted. “I said we may retire in the morning, but I think we are going to work through the evening.”
As NewsBusters previously reported, liberal cable channels CNN and MSNBC gave the Democrats many hours of free TV time.
However, at least one reporter was uncomfortable with the lawmakers' display of affection.
Andrew Desiderio, a member of the D.C. bureau for the Daily Beast website, tweeted: “Rep. Jim Clyburn just turned to us and thanked the media. Round of applause for the media from House Democrats. This is weird.”
While the hosts of the CBS This Morning program told Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy on Thursday that “many people are applauding you for raising the issue” of gun control again, they had a very negative reaction when Texas Senator Ted Cruz “grabbed the national spotlight in 2013 when he held the Senate floor for more than 21 hours and helped shut down much of the government all in protest of President Obama's health-care law.”
Now that this filibuster is over, there have apparently been two results. First, people in the "mainstream media" think it's OK to grind House business to a halt if you're a Democrat and not if you're a Republican.
And second, the 1960s must have been very good to Clyburn and his friends. After all, when was the last time we heard the term “sit-in” during the news?
