On Sunday afternoon, after word broke that a mass shooting had occurred at a Jacksonville, Florida, gaming tournament, it didn't long for CNN host Fredricka Whitfield to talk up the alleged need for more gun laws in Florida -- in fact, it took just a little over 50 minutes. And it feels like only yesterday that the same CNN host was fretting over Republicans "politicizing" the murder of Mollie Tibbetts to call for greater actions against illegal immigration.
Oh, that's right. It literally was yesterday that Whitfield devoted an entire segment to complaining about President Donald Trump and Republicans promoting greater border security in response to the Tibbetts killing.
CNN Newsroom first started reporting news of the mass shooting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, Then, at 3:22 p.m., as gun control activist Mark Kelly appeared to discuss the passing of former Republican Senator John McCain, Whitfield asked for his reaction to the shooting. Without any details on the identify of the gunman or how he acquired his weapon, Kelly asserted that "it's obvious to a lot of people living in Florida that they need to continue to take a serious look at their state's gun laws."
Whitfield agreed and bolstered Kelly as "a big gun advocate" as she followed up:
Yeah, and how does something like this -- I know it's so soon, it just happened -- but how does another incident like this help shape, while you're a big gun advocate, at the same time, you have been pushing for gun safety, gun reform. How does another incident like this get folded into what you've been pushing for on Capitol Hill on a federal level?
But on the day before, at 12:32 p.m., Whitfield bemoaned: "Less than 24 hours after police discovered the body of missing Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, Republicans, including President Trump, highlighted her death to argue for stricter immigration laws."
She then recalled examples of Republicans who reacted by calling for greater efforts at stopping illegal immigration. After noting that an aunt of Tibbetts had complained about the political attention, she brought aboard as a guest CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy, who complained: "It's really actually quite striking that Republicans and conservatives are using her death to push political agenda, particularly after mass shootings and other events, Republicans say, you know, 'Now is not the time to talk about politics.'"
He soon complained: "Unfortunately, you're going to see him (President Trump) use this in the future and use murders like Kate Steinle and this recent one to advance his agenda on immigration."
He soon reiterated:
It's just really striking to see Republicans seize on someone's death, someone's murder, and push policies when, again, for so long, they were saying things like, "Don't politicize deaths. It's not the time to talk about tragedy." And right now, after tragedy strikes, and it happens to work in their favor, you see them doing it.
Whitfield approvingly responded: "All right, good points."
A few hours earlier, on New Day Saturday, CNN hosts Christi Paul and Victor Blackwell had similarly fretted over Republicans using the Tibbetts murder as "political propaganda."
