On Friday’s CBS This Morning, while analyzing Thursday night’s Democratic debate, correspondent Major Garrett praised left-wing contender Beto O’Rourke as a “candidate of conviction” for declaring that as President he would confiscate guns. The reporter marveled at O’Rourke’s “authenticity” on the topic.
“What about Beto O’Rourke’s comment about guns? Where he said, ‘Hell yes, we’re going to take your AK-47s.’ Great reaction in the room, how do you think it played around the country?,” co-host Gayle King wondered during the discussion. Garrett initially responded by acknowledging that the idea was “Constitutionally problematic, legislatively almost impossible.”
However, he then hailed O’Rourke for pushing the radical proposal:
But one thing I think you can fairly say about Beto O’Rourke, he has been transformed by a horrible event during this campaign in real time. All of that, “I was born to this,” Vanity Fair wanderlust about his campaign, that’s gone. He is a candidate of conviction on a real time issue, and he looked much more serious and focused about what this is for him....When you talk about authenticity, as terrible as it was to achieve it, he’s much closer to it than he’s been before.
When O’Rourke entered the presidential race back in March, CBS fawned over the failed Texas senate candidate and touted that ridiculous Vanity Fair puff piece as a “glowing start” for the campaign.
In contrast to CBS celebrating O’Rourke’s gun-grabbing scheme, on NBC’s Today show, former Democratic senator turned political analyst Claire McCaskill was nervous about the extreme proposal: “Obviously Beto O’Rourke talked about confiscating guns. You know, while we all want gun safety, except Mitch McConnell and the NRA and the President, I think talking about confiscating guns is taking it to a place that no candidate for president has ever done.”
During the debate, moderator and ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir noted that “critics call this confiscation” and gently asked: “Are you proposing taking away their guns and how would this work?” That teed up O’Rourke to proclaim: “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47!”
Here is a transcript of Garrett’s September 13 comments:
7:09 AM ET
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GAYLE KING: What about Beto O’Rourke’s comment about guns? Where he said, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AK-47s.” Great reaction in the room, how do you think it played around the country?
MAJOR GARRETT: Sure. Constitutionally problematic, legislatively almost impossible. But one thing I think you can fairly say about Beto O’Rourke, he has been transformed by a horrible event during this campaign in real time. All of that, “I was born to this,” Vanity Fair wanderlust about his campaign, that’s gone. He is a candidate of conviction on a real time issue, and he looked much more serious and focused about what this is for him. Not saying he’s going to win or even get in the top tier, but he looks and sounds like a fundamentally different candidate, transformed by a horror in his hometown. When you talk about authenticity, as terrible as it was to achieve it, he’s much closer to it than he’s been before.
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