Appearing as a panel member on Saturday's AM Joy, frequent MSNBC guest Kurt Bardella was again using his history of involvement in Republican politics to bolster the views of liberals on the show -- this time during a discussion of gun control.
Bardella -- a former spokesperson for Breitbart News who has made a name for himself bashing his former business client -- talked up the possibility that country music celebrities could get more gun control passed in Congress if they were to publicly move to the left on the issue.
Additionally, the alleged Republican provided no counter-argument to far left MSNBC contributor Howard Dean's rant against the NRA, or MoveOn.org's Karine Jean-Pierre deriding congressional Republicans for not enacting new gun laws.
After host Joy Reid recalled that the NRA has hinted at support for barring the sale of bump stocks, the anti-NRA vitriol began when she went to former DNC chairman and former Vermont Democratic Governor Howard Dean for his response. Dean began:
Well, the NRA has become a far-right extremist essentially fundraising group. I think they initially started out this way because -- this is pre-Trump -- when they realized the Republican party was eventually going to move back towards the middle or they're going to be out of business. The average Republican voter is well over 50, and they possess views that are not in sync with where the rest of America is, especially what I call the hate wing of the Republican party. So that's what they are. They're a right-wing extremist organization now, and their positions have become ridiculous.
The Vermont Democrat then tried to bolster his own credentials to attack the NRA as he recalled being endorsed by the pro-gun group in the past:
I was actually endorsed by the National Rifle Association every race I ran in Vermont. They're -- I don't recognize this NRA. So this is the kind of sophistry that I, you know, I think that's all Congress does, it's useless. First of all, people are going to break the law and do it anyway. Second of all, you can kill almost as many people with a semi-automatic. I think we need to do much more substantial stuff here that makes sense. I'm not in favor of taking guns away from hunters, but I am in favor of making sure we have sensible, sane gun laws to stop this wholesale slaughter of the American people.
Dean did not address whether any of the gun restrictions proposed in recent years other than banning bump stocks would have actually had any impact on the gunman in the Las Vegas massacre.
After recounting that Gun Owners of America has a history of hitting the NRA from the right for not more opposed to gun control, Reid then turned to frequent MSNBC guest Jean-Pierre, who served up some anti-Republican rhetoric:
I think everybody's trying to out-far-right each other, but, at the end of the day, it's up to Republicans. Republicans have to look themselves in the mirror and figure out: Are they owned by the NRA or do they work with the American people? ... But, honestly, I don't know how they could look themselves in the mirror after 20 young kids were murdered by gun violence, and they did nothing. After two of their own were victims of gun violence, they did nothing. We're living in an epidemic here. There have been 521 mass shootings in 477 days since Orlando's shootings, and they have still have done nothing -- 11,000 people have died alone this year by gun violence, and nothing has been done.
After hearing from Perry Bacon of Five Thirty-Eight, Reid went to her lone Republican guest and talked up his credentials of having a right-leaning history:
And, Kurt, you know, you're in a unique position here because you obviously, you know, worked at Breitbart, but you also have a lot of connections to the country music world and to that industry, so you know that world as well. We saw one member of the band that was playing when this horrific massacre took place go on record and say he's changed his mind, that they had guns in their van and they were useless to them. Does that kind of thing start to move the sort of, you know, Republican base on this issue? Or are they just fixed in place? I mean, we've heard Bannon already say it's a nonstarter.
True to form, Bardella offered no right-leaning analysis to the discussion as he merely echoed the sentiments of the liberal panel members -- albeit in a gentler way -- that there should be more gun laws, as he talked up the possibility that more country music artists will join in pushing for more gun laws. As Bardella seemed to repeat liberal talking points about not wanting to take away Second Amendment rights, he did not specify what new gun laws he would advocate passing:
I think that when you have people who are cultural figures to a lot of people who are part of the gun community, move their opinion and say that it's okay to change your mind. It's okay to want sensible reform -- it has nothing to do with taking away anybody's rights. In fact, it's about protecting gun owners' rights. It's about making sure that crazy people don't have guns. And, as I've talked to different artists in the country music community this last week, there is an appetite to have a thoughtful conversation about it.
The idea that we have to choose between having the Second Amendment and being safe, why do we have to choose between the two? Why can't we have both of those? Because that's what we should be striving for. And I think a lot of these artists are talking amongst themselves about: What is the best way to express the desire to change what happened?
Then, as if to try to diminish the argument that people often use guns to defend themselves from criminals, Bardella made a point of recalling that if the concert goers in Las Vegas had been armed, they would have been unable to return fire toward the gunman who was attacking from such a long distance:
And one of the unique things about this shooting versus some of the other ones, is that every single person in that crowd could have had a gun, it would not have effected the outcome. And so this strikes a lot closer to home because all of us can imagine what it's like to be at an entertainment event. I'm going to one tonight, a country music concert tonight. We can put ourselves there and visualize being in that situation. And that's terrifying to realize, so why can't we all get together and agree that we need to do some common-sense things, and it has nothing to do with taking away anyone's guns or infringing on your Second Amendment rights.
After host Reid wondered if country artists would be "shunned" like the Dixie Chicks if they pushed liberal views on guns, Bardella further talked up the possibility of more country music artists publicly moving left:
I think the answer is no, and I think the key is they're going to have to do it together. It can't just be one artist at a time. It can't be someone isolated on an island. They need to get together in a show of support and a show of force, do it in a way where it's impossible to blacklist a bunch of these artists all at one time if they stand up together.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Saturday, October 7, AM Joy on MSNBC:
JOY REID: The NRA did a very sort of stealthy statement which it sort of made it seem like maybe they were making some movement on the issue of gun reform, but they're saying they want the ATF to do the regulations. Let me read you what the excerpt from a letter that the ATF firearms branch chief officer sent in 2010 summarizing the bump stock's intended purpose.
(...)
REID: So they've already issued that determination. What kind of game is the NRA playing here?
HOWARD DEAN: Well, the NRA has become a far-right extremist essentially fundraising group. I think they initially started out this way because -- this is pre-Trump -- when they realized the Republican party was eventually going to move back towards the middle or they're going to be out of business. The average Republican voter is well over 50, and they possess views that are not in sync with where the rest of America is, especially what I call the hate wing of the Republican party. So that's what they are. They're a right-wing extremist organization now, and their positions have become ridiculous.
I was actually endorsed by the National Rifle Association every race I ran in Vermont. They're -- I don't recognize this NRA. So this is the kind of sophistry that I, you know, I think that's all Congress does, it's useless. First of all, people are going to break the law and do it anyway. Second of all, you can kill almost as many people with a semi-automatic. I think we need to do much more substantial stuff here that makes sense. I'm not in favor of taking guns away from hunters, but I am in favor of making sure we have sensible, sane gun laws to stop this wholesale slaughter of the American people.
REID: And, Karine, I think that's an important point because there's nobody who called for gun reform legislation that's in favor of taking guns from hunters. I grew up in Colorado -- you know, apparently, everybody on our block probably had rifles for hunting. But no one is even talking about that. But do you think that part of the reason that the NRA has become so extreme is that they have competition? There's another group called the Gun Owners of America that's even further to the right, if you can believe that, than the NRA. They issued a statement on this idea of bump stock legislation.
(...)
REID: Do you think that their further extremism is what keeps the NRA in line and refusing to do anything on gun reform?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, Joy, I think that's right. I think everybody's trying to out-far-right each other, but, at the end of the day, it's up to Republicans. Republicans have to look themselves in the mirror and figure out: Are they owned by the NRA or do they work with the American people? ... But, honestly, I don't know how they could look themselves in the mirror after 20 young kids were murdered by gun violence, and they did nothing. After two of their own were victims of gun violence, they did nothing. We're living in an epidemic here. There have been 521 mass shootings in 477 days since Orlando's shootings, and they have still have done nothing -- 11,000 people have died alone this year by gun violence, and nothing has been done.
(...)
REID: And, Kurt, you know, you're in a unique position here because you obviously, you know, worked at Breitbart, but you also have a lot of connections to the country music world and to that industry, so you know that world as well. We saw one member of the band that was playing when this horrific massacre took place go on record and say he's changed his mind, that they had guns in their van and they were useless to them. Does that kind of thing start to move the sort of, you know, Republican base on this issue? Or are they just fixed in place? I mean, we've heard Bannon already say it's a nonstarter.
KURT BARDELLA: I think that when you have people who are cultural figures to a lot of people who are part of the gun community, move their opinion and say that it's okay to change your mind. It's okay to want sensible reform -- it has nothing to do with taking away anybody's rights. In fact, it's about protecting gun owners' rights. It's about making sure that crazy people don't have guns. And, as I've talked to different artists in the country music community this last week, there is an appetite to have a thoughtful conversation about it. The idea that we have to choose between having the Second Amendment and being safe, why do we have to choose between the two? Why can't we have both of those?
REID: Right.
BARDELLA: Because that's what we should be striving for. And I think a lot of these artists are talking amongst themselves about: What is the best way to express the desire to change what happened? And one of the unique things about this shooting versus some of the other ones, is that every single person in that crowd could have had a gun, it would not have effected the outcome.
REID: Yeah.
BARDELLA: And so this strikes a lot closer to home because all of us can imagine what it's like to be at an entertainment event. I'm going to one tonight, a country music concert tonight. We can put ourselves there and visualize being in that situation. And that's terrifying to realize, so why can't we all get together and agree that we need to do some common-sense things, and it has nothing to do with taking away anyone's guns or infringing on your Second Amendment rights.
REID: Ir more artists came out, would they get Dixie Chicked? Would they wind up getting shunned in the country music community?
BARDELLA: I think the answer is no, and I think the key is they're going to have to do it together. It can't just be one artist at a time. It can't be someone isolated on an island. They need to get together in a show of support and a show of force, do it in a way where it's impossible to blacklist a bunch of these artists all at one time if they stand up together.
