On Sunday morning, Margaret Hoover demonstrated why she is the kind of Republican CNN likes to retain as contributors for the liberal news network as she longed for a Republican party that would support more gun control. Appearing as a panel member during ABC This Week's "Powerhouse Round Table" segment, the CNN contributor declared that she "really hopes" that the Joe Biden administration manages to get an infrastructure bill passed that leads to bipartisanship on gun control and other issues.
George Stephanopoulos alluded to an earlier report by correspondent Pierre Thomas about the surge in shootings as the ABC host turned to Hoover and posed:
All across the country, we're seeing rising gun violence in every state in the country right now, especially in the cities as Pierre pointed out. And it's combined with what we talked about it at the top of the show there in that poll -- huge rise in pessimism among the American people right now.
The liberal Republican quickly alluded to a long discredited poll as she claimed that 90 percent of Americans want more gun control:
Yeah, no, it's really striking, and I really hope we can get some infrastructure done so they have a win on the board for some bipartisan legislation actually at the federal level as well because 90 percent of Americans agree that there's some basic things we can all do with respect to -- to -- to gun control.
Hoover -- who is also host of PBS's Firing Line show -- then added:
And there are even some reform Republicans out there who are trying to think there what a future there is to what a Republican agenda can look like that includes some kind of gun control. It's not taking away anybody's guns -- it's not hitting the Second Amendment -- but there are things that can be done that are reasonable things that aren't going to hit Republicans.
She then expressed a hope that the Biden administration succeeds on other issues in Congress:
And so, you know, I look forward to it -- none of is going to happen if this polarization in Washington continues to choke -- have a chokehold on us. And so you got to have a little bit of a win on infrastructure, and then there's a lot of things, I think, can be done, and, you know, I think there's a lot of hope for this administration that we might see some of that.
No one on the panel pushed back against her talking up more gun laws that would be ineffectual in reducing crime.
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Transcript follows. Click "expand" to read more.
ABC
This Week
7/25/2021
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Margaret, I was struck by Pierre (Thomas)'s piece there on violence. All across the country, we're seeing rising gun violence in every state in the country right now, especially in the cities as Pierre pointed out. And it's combined with what we talked about it at the top of the show there in that poll -- huge rise in pessimism among the American people right now.
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, no, it's really striking, and I really hope we can get some infrastructure done so they have a win on the board for some bipartisan legislation actually at the federal level as well because 90 percent of Americans agree that there's some basic things we can all do with respect to -- to -- to gun control.
And there are even some reform Republicans out there who are trying to think there what a future there is to what a Republican agenda can look like that includes some kind of gun control. It's not taking away anybody's guns -- it's not hitting the Second Amendment -- but there are things that can be done that are reasonable things that aren't going to hit Republicans.
And so, you know, I look forward to it -- none of is going to happen if this polarization in Washington continues to choke -- have a chokehold on us. And so you got to have a little bit of a win on infrastructure, and then there's a lot of things, I think, can be done, and, you know, I think there's a lot of hope for this administration that we might see some of that.
