On Friday’s edition of MSNBC’s NOW with Alex Wagner, former DNC Communications Director Karen Finney (and occasional MSNBC host) used the tragic death of Trayvon Martin to viciously attack Republicans across the country. The segment started out examining the role of gun laws in our society and quickly turned into an assault on Republicans, following comments made by liberal-host Wagner.
Wagner made the claim that, “We had a map of the 25, 26 states with stand your ground laws. You can actually overlay a map of the red states in this country.” Such divisive rhetoric fed into the liberal talking point for Karen as she went on a tirade. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Finney maintained that there was a calculated effort between the NRA and ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative public policy group) to push gun laws starting in Florida, going so far as to say that the, “Same committee happened to work on draft legislation on, oh, voter ID laws."
In Karen’s extreme world view, maintaining voting integrity is somehow comparable to gun laws and in her words, “You can put a graphic on over those states and then many of them line up with a lot of the very dramatic extreme things we've been seeing passed in the states by Republican-controlled governors and legislatures.”
Finney, who cannot speak without smearing Republicans has used the tragedy in Florida to make explosive claims, implied that Republicans are extreme in their gun and voter ID laws, which contribute to horrific events across the country. Rahm Emanuel was right as liberals like Karen Finney continue to exploit a tragedy for political gains.
Below is the relevant transcript.
NOW with Alex Wagner
03/23/2012
12:18 p.m.
WES MOORE: And the fact that I think if we're going to have an honest conversation about gun control, it can't just be about as you said, you know the exceptions. We’re also going to have to include the amount of illegal guns that are also on the streets which make up a vast majority of gun crime that takes place in our country. And you have efforts by, you know, for example the mayors united against control of illegal gun with Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Booker, etc, are saying if you look at so many of our cities, these are guns that are not registered, these are guns that are not authorized by anybody. But then people are walking around and using them as deadly weapons. So there has to be a much larger conversation about gun control.
ALEX WAGNER: But, you know we had, I don’t know if we actually, our graphics department finished this. But we had a map of the 25, 26 states with stand your ground laws. You can actually overlay a map of the red states in this country. And there is so, I mean, this is an incredibly heated very partisan issue.
KAREN FINNEY: It is. Although I’ll tell you, the other thing that you can overlay on that map and this is kind of a new detail that we're learning more about is the group ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative public policy group) played a huge role working with the NRA in drafting legislation that was then like Wayne LaPierre said, Florida was the starting point. Right. That was a very calculated strategy to start in Florida, spreading to those other states. Same committee happened to work on draft legislation on oh voter i.d. laws. You know so you can put a graphic on over those states and then many of them line up with a lot of the very dramatic extreme things we've been seeing passed in the states by Republican-controlled governors and legislatures.
WAGNER: And I guess it is a small step forward that Florida Governor Rick Scott has said he may be looking again at the law given how transparently awful and tragic the havoc that it has brought.
