On his Thursday MSNBC program, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough attacked National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre for his “Stand and Fight” op-ed that appeared on The Daily Caller on Thursday.
Scarborough attacked the op-ed’s “racial overtones” and its questions about America’s future.
He also disparaged the piece for its suggestion that a firearm in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy last year on the streets of Brooklyn was a necessity.
“I don’t know where to start,” Scarborough said. “Yeah, it’s responsible to own a gun. It’s responsible to protect your family. It’s responsible to have a handgun in your house. It’s responsible to have a shotgun. It’s responsible to have a hunting rifle. But Wayne LaPierre is suggesting if you are against Americans being able to own assault weapons with 30-round high-capacity magazines, that somehow you’re going to — and he said ‘Hispanic drug gangs are coming to America,’ and those terrible people in Brooklyn, don’t go out after dark. I mean, this is so laced with racial overtones that the Republican Party, if they were smart, their leaders today would condemn it, but they’re not smart. They’re scared. And you know if they keep running scared, they’re going to lose more votes. They’re going to get hammered in future elections if they allow this clown to continue to lead them around by their nose. They’re shameful. They need to be leaders.”
The “Morning Joe” host also argued that LaPierre’s stance is rooted in the belief that America will one day collapse.
“It’s not about the Second Amendment rights,” Scarborough said. “And Willie [Geist], when he goes through that laundry list and he says that he is confident, just like Glenn Beck with his survival seeds, he is confident that America is going to collapse — I want to say that again. Wayne LaPierre, unlike Ronald Reagan, who believed America’s greatest days were ahead of us, and if Reagan were alive today, Reagan would still believe that America’s greatest days are ahead of us. You know why? Because America’s greatest days are ahead of us. But Wayne LaPierre’s vision, Willie, is this post-apocalyptic America. Again, straight out of ‘The Book of Eli’ where Americans are going to have to buy bushmasters … because we’re not going to have police officers. We’re not going to — Wayne LaPierre is arguing, we’re not going to be able to afford police officers. So we’d better get those guns now. And he goes, Americans know it. Americans know it. We’re collapsing. Why does Wayne LaPierre not believe in America’s greatness?”
Beyond the Republican Party, Scarborough called upon red-state Democrats to condemn LaPierre in the wake of what he called a “racially-tinged, very suggestive op-ed.”
“I need to clarify also, there are, of course, Democratic senators that are going to be running for re-election in South Dakota, in Louisiana, and a lot of southern states, a lot of very red states in 2014 that haven’t distanced themselves yet from Wayne LaPierre. They need to do that. There are about 40 to 45 Democrats in the House of Representatives that haven’t distanced themselves from Wayne LaPierre. They need to do that as well. He is a caricature. And the question is, when are they going to get the message?”
