Another Republican gets dinged by Chuck Todd as he caught Rep. James Comer misinforming about crime. The GOP usually gets away with these willful lies.
Chuck Todd strikes again!
I found Chuck Todd’s commentary a bit surprising, given his take on the gun issue today. He challenged GOP Rep. James Comer on the GOP’s centralization on the freedom to have firearms and not freedom in general.
“These massacres, nobody wants to see them,” Chuck Todd said. “I mean, it does feel as if we talk about the individual freedom of somebody to be able to have the right to bear arms. People want to have the individual freedom to shop at Wal-Mart without fear of getting shot.”
He then pointed out that something as simple as a waiting period could have mitigated the recent Walmart shooting. Comer immediately started his misrepresentation. He accused Todd of the media making that sort of statement but —
“But when you look at cities that have the most strict gun laws like Washington, D.C., Chicago,” Comer said. These are the cities with the highest rate of crimes committed with guns. So, you know, just simply passing more bills isn’t going to solve the problem. I think we need to get serious about law enforcement.”
I wanted Todd to come back and say that if we had national policies that prevented near-unfettered access to guns in the Red States where criminals from all states can buy guns, those cities would not have the problem. Chuck didn’t but gave an acceptable pushback that I think was even more profound, as we have discussed this before.
“I’ve heard this talking point about gun laws in cities, but I don’t know if you realize this, that the states that have the most gun laws have the least amount of per capita gun crime in the states with the least amount of gun laws seem to have the most,” Todd said. “I’m showing it here on the screen.”
Of course, Comer tried to make it with his subliminal message that it was not a rural thing. Unfortunately for him, even metro areas like Tulsa and Oklahoma City are controlled by Republicans, and their crime rates excede both New York and California.