As most of the nation celebrates Martin Luther King Day while attempting to move passed the tragic events in Tucson, CNBC's Donny Deutsch decided to ask Reverend Al Sharpton if Arizona should secede from the union.
Such happened on Monday's "Morning Joe" as the crew discussed gun laws in the wake of the shootings (video follows with transcript and commentary):
REVEREND AL SHARPTON: Kids have become, in my opinion, seduced with this gangster thug kind of culture that we've got to confront. They're no longer looking to role models as a Dr. King or Malcolm X, but they're looking to people like Scarface. We’ve got to confront it, we’ve got to deal with it directly because it's killing people in our communities. And on Dr. King Day, there's no more important message who himself was killed with gunfire.
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NEW YORK): And Reverend, the 1968 gun control act which still governs in many ways was passed in response to the assassination of Dr. King…
SHARPTON: That's correct.
SCHUMER: …and of Bobby Kennedy.
DONNY DEUTSCH: Reverend, I just want to, it's Donny. Hey buddy, I want to ask you a question. We're in the year 2011. We’re coming off the horrific, horrific event in Tucson. Yet as we celebrate Dr. King's day, there's still this very strange state, Arizona, that does not recognize it. I mean, maybe is there a time for a shift here? Should they secede from the nation? I, with all that’s going on, it's just almost bizarre at this point.
SHARPTON: Well, I think on today they have seceded. I mean, this is a federal holiday. This is something that the country can celebrate the progress we've made.
Nice job of toning down the rhetoric there, gentlemen.
This is exactly the kind of message mournful Arizonans want to see on their television screens as they try to heal from this hoffific event.
Boggles the mind, doesn't it?
(H/T The Blaze)
*****Update: As Ed Morrissey at Hot Air noted Monday, Deutsch and Sharpton were quite wrong...
Arizona began recognizing MLK Day in 1992, after a long battle over adding another paid holiday for government workers in the state. They weren’t even the last state to recognize it; New Hampshire changed Civil Rights Day to MLK Day in 1999. Utah changed Human Rights Day in 2000 to MLK Day, the same year South Carolina made it a paid holiday rather than just a day of remembrance.
So now that the “heated rhetoric” meme has been dismantled, apparently now we have the “Arizona is racist” meme instead on MSNBC, based on total and willful ignorance and a complete failure to bother to do any simple research on the issue. That must be the New Tone of MSNBC as they Lean Forward! Perhaps their motto should be Better Civility Through Ignorance.
Nicely said, Ed.
