Gun-grabbing Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper enjoyed softball questions on Monday as the co-hosts of CBS This Morning uncritically hyped his gun control moves in the state and talked him up as a potential vice president to Hillary Clinton. Attempting to spin Hickenlooper as a moderate, Charlie Rose touted, “What's the difficulty in explaining, on the one hand, that certain kinds of guns you don't want people to be able to get, you want certain procedures and at the same time saying you do not want to do away with the Second Amendment?”
Notice the assumption that the Democrat isn’t an enemy of the Second Amendment. In fact, the NRA gave its worst grade, an F, to the governor. That fact was not mentioned by the co-hosts. Instead, Rose stated, “You do not want to do away with guns.”
The closest any of the journalist came to a challenge is when Norah O’Donnell vaguely wondered, “But there's a lot of gun owners and Second Amendment supporters in Colorado. How do they respond to the gun control measures that you signed into state law?”
How do they respond? If O’Donnell had bothered to check, she would have been able to tell viewers the answer: Not well. In 2013, a historic recall election ousted two Democrats behind Hickenlooper’s gun control laws and replaced them with pro-gun Republicans.
Instead of offering tough questions, Gayle King focused on Hickenlooper’s new book and provided this bland talking point: “It's also nasty, the campaign. And you write, you really don't like negative campaigning.”
There was also this exchange about naked selfies in college:
GAYLE KING: Let's talk about your experimentation with pot and naked selfies. You do recall that incident in the book.
JOHN HICKENLOOPER: It's a long book.
KING: You shared that story why? Because you wanted us to know what about you? First tell them what happened.
HICKENLOOPER: Well, the — I wanted the book to be authentic. I wanted it to be actually grounded.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Honest.
HICKENLOOPER: Exactly. Honest about that. So, I put in stuff that most people would edit out. Youthful indiscretions. You know, when I was in college, I took a photo class and, you know, I set up a tripod. I was in a bathtub and I took a picture of myself.
A transcript of the segment is below:
CBS TM
5/23/16
8:34GAYLE KING: Colorado is the center of debates from the presidential race to guns to marijuana. 2008 Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper welcomed fellow Democrats to the convention that made history, nominating Barack Obama for President. Less than three years later, Hickenlooper became Colorado’s governor. He lead his state through the aftermath of the Aurora theater rampage and legalization of recreational pot. Hickenlooper is also a successful brew pub entrepreneur. His new memoir is called The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics. And we welcome Governor Hickenlooper to the table. Hello.
GOVERNOR JOHN HICKENLOOPER: Great to be here.
CHARLIE ROSE: Are you glad you're here?
HICKENLOOPER: Yes, I am. Although, who knows?
ROSE: You let us know later.
HICKENLOOPER: Exactly.
KING: Yes, Governor. Let's talk about your experimentation with pot and naked selfies. You do recall that incident in the book.
HICKENLOOPER: It's a long book.
KING: You shared that story why? Because you wanted us to know what about you? First tell them what happened.
HICKENLOOPER: Well, the — I wanted the book to be authentic. I wanted it to be actually grounded.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Honest.
HICKENLOOPER: Exactly. Honest about that. So, I put in stuff that most people would edit out. Youthful indiscretions. You know, when I was in college, I took a photo class and, you know, I set up a tripod. I was in a bathtub and I took a picture of myself.
KING: Naked.
HICKENLOOPER: Naked. Well, I was in the bathtub! I was in the bathtub.
O’DONNELL: Where are those pictures now.
ROSE: Exactly. Was this before Instragram?
HICKENLOOPER: Lost to the archives of history, I'm sure. But anyway, we tried to put everything in to the book.
KING: But you sad you describe it as a call to action for nerds and geeks. I hear nerds and geeks are having a good resurgence this time of the day.
HICKENLOOPER: Well, part of the idea is, you know, I sort of felt like I had a story to tell, this kind of strange, unpredictable life. When I was growing up, in the book, I had thick glasses, acne. No confidence. My dad died when I was a kid. Through the evolution of life, you know, it — nerds and geeks, that's who I was, if you work hard enough and have the right attitude and don't quit, in the end, you can play a role that's part of — That's part of what America needs. More people coming in to be mayors and city council members. Everyone is so, kind of, frustrated by all forms of government. But this is America. Government is us.
ROSE: This is America, this is politics. [Reading New York Post headline.] “Trump flies, Hill cries in fourth straight prez survey.” Is that the way it is, you think? Right now? They’re pretty much even.
HICKENLOOPER: Oh, I don't think so. It's hard to predict these polls this far out. It's great — exciting, like it's reading drama. I think in the end — But, it’s funny, in the book —
ROSE: But that's a snapshot today. Is this where it is today?
HICKENLOOPER: I agree. Yeah. Probably, in terms of how people think. I talk in the book about Agnes Nixon who was one of my mother's closest friends. Wrote these amazing soap operas, As the World Turns, Guiding Light. They would have a wedding and they would fill up an office with all the wedding gifts. People take it as reality. I think, you know, that what Donald Trump has been presenting — like The Apprenticeship [sic]. people think that the Apprenticeship it's real life. And really, that's not a vision for America, that's not a plan of how we should be approaching problems.
KING: It's also nasty, the campaign. And you write, you really don’t like negative campaigning.
HICKENLOOPER: I also grew as a skinny kid in elementary school and got bullied. And when someone's a kind of braggart and bully, it makes me on edge because I lived that. I don't think that's the model we want for our kids in this country. Obviously, this is my opinion. But I hold it pretty strongly.
O’DONNELL: One of the debates going on now is over guns. Donald Trump has changed his position, but just received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association. One of the things he’s talked about is that we should end gun-free zones in schools. You've done a lot in terms of guns in Colorado. Explain what you talk about in the book.
HICKENLOOPER: Well, in so many ways we tried to get the facts and listen. Trying to persuade someone, telling them often what you think makes things worse. And by listening and asking questions, things like universal background checks, we went back and got the facts. In 2012, we got half the gun purchases, 38 people convicted of homicide tried to buy a gun, and we stopped them. One hundred and 33 convicted of sexual assault tried to buy a gun. We stopped them. Thirteen hundred people convicted of felony assault. Universal background checks work. You keep guns out of the hand of dangerous people. That shouldn't be partisan. That should be something we can all agree to. It became a huge battle and, you know, really, really a challenge.
ROSE: What's the difficulty in explaining, on the one hand, that certain kinds of guns you don't want people to be able to get, you want certain procedures. And at the same time saying you do not want to do away with the Second Amendment and you do not want to do away with guns?
HICKENLOOPER: Right. Well, I think to look back and go over the mass shootings we've had over the last 25 years, let’s say, and there's about 35, I think. And of those, three-quarters had magazines with more than 15 rounds. I mean, that becomes — we couldn't find a single example of someone ever needing more than 15 rounds to defend their home, ever in history. It's a benefit on the shooting range. It’s nicer to have a large capacity magazine. But long term, that's probably — it’s like when we banned off sawed off shotguns in the 1930s. Sometimes we modify our regulations, our well-regulated militias, what the Second Amendment says, for the overall public good of the country.
O’DONNELL: But there's a lot of gun owners and Second Amendment supporters in Colorado. How do they respond to the gun control measures that you signed into state law?
HICKENLOOPER: I think many of them were unhappy. Especially the magazine one. I think universal background checks is — people can accept that more easily.
KING: So you want to be VP. because Malcolm Gladwell says this: "Read and reflect on how thoughtful and intelligent and charming John Hickenlooper is. Then hope to God he runs for president one day.” And your name is being floated as a VP candidate. What say you, Mr. Hickenlooper?
HICKENLOOPER: I’m not trying to be VP. I have the greatest job in the world.
KING: Everybody says that.
HICKENLOOPER: I think that list is very long list, and I think I’m down towards the bottom. That's not a point of contention or point of real discussion. I look at — Malcolm Gladwell is a brilliant writer and generous spirit to write such a nice thing.
ROSE: He deeply appreciates the dinner you took him to. In a word, in a sentence, what ought this campaign be about? Character? A particular issue, or what?
HICKENLOOPER: I think it should be about what's your experience is. What's your capability to be present on day one really is. And have you be that experienced to solve the most — we're in one of the most challenging times in our history. Back to the Depression is the last time we had this many increases in productivity when they electrified factories. That makes it hard to keep people to work, to keep generating new jobs and training.
KING: I always I hate to cut a governor off. But we've got to go.
