MSNBC’s crusade against NRA, accuses Wayne LaPierre of racism twice in one day

MSNBC’s crusade against NRA, accuses Wayne LaPierre of racism twice in one day

2013-02-14-MSNBC-Now-WagnerIf it weren’t so pathetic, you would almost have to admire liberals’ uncanny ability to spot racism lurking in the shadows, wrapping itself around every word uttered by a conservative. Twice on Thursday, MSNBC took the National Rifle Association and its CEO, Wayne LaPierre, to task for their racist comments (h/t Newsbusters).

First came Joe Scarborough, who on “Morning Joe” assailed a recent op-ed by LaPierre as “laced with racial overtones” because it suggested that Brooklynites should have the right to defend themselves against looters following Hurricane Sandy.

Then, just in case the first dog-whistle accusation wasn’t loud enough to reach the ears of every easily swayed viewer, “Now” host Alex Wagner read from the piece: “Hurricanes, tornadoes, riots, terrorists, gangs, lone criminals,” she huffed. “These are the perils we are sure to face. Not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival,” later remarking: “Tthere’s also a lot of racial — racism imbedded in that full statement. He goes on to impugn Latin America as these kind of dark nights with dark people in Brooklyn.”

The rich irony is that Wager introduces the segment, the complete transcript of which follows the video, by calling LaPierre’s views “tone-deaf.”

ALEX WAGNER: His press conference in the wake of the Newtown tragedy constituted one of the most tone deaf events in repeat memory. Now, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre is taking it to a new lunar [sic] level of insanity with a screed on the conservative Daily Caller website, writing, ‘Hurricanes, tornadoes, riots, terrorists, gangs, lone criminals, these are the perils we are sure to face. Not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival.’ LaPierre continues, ‘After Hurricane Sandy, we saw the hellish world that gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water, or electricity, and if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark or you might not get home at all.’ The finale: ‘We will not surrender. We will not appease. We will buy more guns than ever.’ Kurt, as a resident of south Brooklyn, was that– Was that your utopia?

KURT ANDERSEN (Author, ‘True Believers’): Fortunately, I have guns, so I was able to — no. Why should I be alarmed and amazed at the factual profound factual inaccuracies here. There were, not only looters in south Brooklyn. Everybody was out helping everybody else. It was morning in America. Yes, there was no electricity for a while. But, you know, it was the opposite of that description, if he wants to have some post-on post-apocalyptic nightmare. That line of ‘and we will buy more guns’ to me is the most bonkers much the whole thing. I mean, because it bespeaks of fetishism of ‘I need more guns.’

WAGNER: It’s like a child beating its hands.

ANDERSEN: And, by the way, to the degree the NRA is a gun industry organization, that’s just, yes, buy more guns.

WAGNER: Joy, there’s also a lot of racial — racism imbedded in that full statement. He goes on to impugn Latin America as these kind of dark nights with dark people in Brooklyn.

JOY REID: That’s right. I don’t know how he missed the zombies because there were also zombies. And you know, I don’t understand how they even survived in south Brooklyn. I think he was talking about south Brooklyn of the 1980s. He has this vision of brown and black people running around looting and burning and we have to get guns to shoot them.

But the undeniable truth is that there was looting in the wake of the superstorm, some of it, remarkably, over the Thanksgiving holiday! Although it wasn’t widely reported by the mainstream media — mainly because the storm hit in the days leading up to the presidential election — there was much that went wrong. The sick and elderly in the south of Brooklyn went largely forgotten for as long as two weeks.

Did all of this happen because the victims were “dark people,” as Wagner calls them? No, but then again not all victims of the hurricane were people of color, and LaPierre says nowhere in his editorial that the acts of vandalism and looting were carried out by blacks or Hispanics. Those are Alex Wagner’s “dirty pictures.”

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Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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