MSNBC’s Mitchell Chides Obama for ‘Not One Word’ on Gun Control in State of the Union
In a pre-taped interview with gun control advocate New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg aired during Wednesday's 1PM ET hour on MSNBC, host Andrea Mitchell browbeat President Obama for having “absolutely nothing, not one word….not even a sentence” about gun control in his State of the Union address. Prior to the interview, Mitchell touted Bloomberg's anti-gun crusade: “Michael Bloomberg is on a mission, a mission to curb guns, especially the semiautomatic pistols and the magazine used in Tucson. He sent New York undercover investigators to buy guns and ammo at a Phoenix gun show last month.” While she noted how the Arizona attorney general “says Bloomberg overstepped his bounds” she seemed to cheer the Mayor's defiance: “I talked to the mayor last night and he's only just beginning to fight.” Bloomberg proclaimed: “…34 people killed every single day [from gun violence]. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, 34 people killed across America. And we just can't keep doing this, Andrea. We have to do something to stop the carnage.” Mitchell then asked for his response to the fact that the President offered “not one word” to the topic in the State of the Union. Bloomberg declared: “I think that he missed a great opportunity….the legacy that President Obama would have, if he was the one that finally stood up and got Congress behind him to have sensible laws….for the rest of his life, he would have a smile on his face and he'd go down in the history books.” Mitchell followed up by wondering why politicians in Washington “are so afraid of the gun lobby and so afraid of this issue?” Bloomberg argued: “The elected officials misread one single issue advocacy group, namely the NRA, and their power….they are so far removed, they don't see, as mayors do every day, they don't have to go to the funerals when a cop gets shot and killed. They don't have to go when some child is standing on the street corner and a random bullet comes by and goes through their head.”
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on February 2, 2011. Filed under