After Texas Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke made a fool of himself by selfishly interrupting the Wednesday press conference where Texas officials updated the public on the Uvalde school shooting, MSNBC’s Katy Tur declared the officials were wrong, because it is partisan and Chuck Todd added Republicans should be aware that they live in a glass house.
Coming out of the press conference, Tur declared America doesn’t care about murdered children, “It is not a good day to be with you. It cannot be a good day when we live in a country that shrugs its shoulders children as are being murdered.”
Tur also falsely added that AR-15s are designed for war, “Nineteen kids shot to death with an assault rifle, an AR-15-style weapon according to law enforcement, a weapon designed for war.”
Later, Tur turned Todd to comment on O’Rourke’s stunt, “So, it's hard to tell who is yelling back at Beto O'Rourke, right there. It might have been Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, but they said this is not the time for politics. Now is the time to be with families and that this isn't partisan, it’s not a political thing but, Chuck, it is partisan, it absolutely is partisan because there's one party that's refusing to pass gun laws.”
Todd began by trying to become a logician, “You know, you brought up the—the-- comment he made at the beginning about it's been -- that 18-year-olds have been able to buy long guns for 60 years and I thought it was a strange thing for the governor to say, because okay, I'll take that to your logical end there. You know what happened 56 years ago, Katy? The school shooting that basically began this epidemic. Fifty-six years ago it was the University of Texas, right? In the bell tower, the most, the one that arguably, unfortunately started it all.”
Backtracking a little, Todd added, “So, look, I'm not going to sit here and say that's cause and effect,” but then immediately went back to his original causation-correlation error, “but it's not a good argument if you're Governor Abbott to sit there and say ‘well, they've been able to do this in 60 years’ and you're like, ‘oh, in the last 60 years what has become an epidemic in this country and what has not?’”
Todd then argued that if Texas really cares about mental health, they would expand Medicaid and confusing facts for his opinions added, “So, just a few, a couple of those fact checks there.”
Moving on, Todd suggested the people who were angry at O’Rourke are hypocrites, “Governor Abbott is the person that sent migrants to Washington, D.C. right outside my office here as a political stunt as well it, so it—it--, I think when either side is lecturing folks about political theater, they need to remember the glass house that they live in here.”
Shifting back to gun control, Todd lamented “you have one party that has decided that the Second Amendment is almost a religious tenet and there is such a fervor on it that you cannot have sort of a logical and rational conversation.”
At least the Second Amendment is in the Constitution, the same cannot be said of abortion and MSNBC’s lack of “logical and rational” conversations about that.
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Here is a transcript for the May 25 show:
MSNBC Katy Tur Reports
5/25/2022
2:30 PM ET
KATY TUR: It is not a good day to be with you. It cannot be a good day when we live in a country that shrugs its shoulders children as are being murdered. Nineteen kids shot to death with an assault rifle, an AR-15-style weapon according to law enforcement, a weapon designed for war. So deadly the inventor of the AR-15, who was an avid sportsman and hunter himself, never even used it for sport, never kept in his house, never even owned one, his family has said he would be horrified and sickened to see how it’s being used now, how it’s by now, how it’s being used by civilians to kill civilians. And yet is and yet here we are again with our kids dead, 19 kids and two of their adult teachers killed in a school, in their classrooms, just after recess, two days before summer break.
…
2:43
TUR: So, it's hard to tell who is yelling back at Beto O'Rourke, right there. It might have been Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, but they said this is not the time for politics. Now is the time to be with families and that this isn't partisan, it’s not a political thing but, Chuck, it is partisan, it absolutely is partisan because there's one party that's refusing to pass gun laws.
CHUCK TODD: You know, you brought up the—the-- comment he made at the beginning about it's been -- that 18-year-olds have been able to buy long guns for 60 years and I thought it was a strange thing for the governor to say, because okay, I'll take that to your logical end there. You know what happened 56 years ago, Katy? The school shooting that basically began this epidemic. Fifty-six years ago it was the University of Texas, right? In the bell tower, the most, the one that arguably, unfortunately started it all.
So, look, I'm not going to sit here and say that's cause and effect, but it's not a good argument if you're Governor Abbott to sit there and say “well, they've been able to do this in 60 years” and you're like, “oh, in the last 60 years what has become an epidemic in this country and what has not?”
So, there's that. Ironically, the other thing is he's talking about the issue of—of-- the lack of rural hospital beds, particularly mental health beds. There's a piece of legislation that the federal government is basically begging states to take that haven't taken it, it's called Medicaid expansion and that would have a huge impact on the issue that he was describing there, which is a lack of mental health.
So, just a few, a couple of those fact checks there, but look I understand why we’re seeing, you know, you can’t, I'm not going to sit in and—and— weigh in on whose political theater is—is--, who’s making a mistake here by leaning into to political theater.
Governor Abbott is the person that sent migrants to Washington, D.C. right outside my office here as a political stunt as well it, so it—it--, I think when either side is lecturing folks about political theater, they need to remember the glass house that they live in here, but I think it just shows you that, it’s, nothing, I don't know what's going to shake elected leaders on this, but, you know, this is, you know, you have one party that has decided that the Second Amendment is almost a religious tenet and there is such a fervor on it that you cannot have sort of a logical and rational conversation, I mean, I went through in the hour before, Katy, and noted all of the loosening gun laws that Texas has passed since 2007, there were so many we had to do a scroll.
