Americans who were hoping that President Joe Biden would take the opportunity Tuesday evening to dial down the rhetoric and reflect somberly on the tragic shooting deaths of nearly 20 children at a grade school in Uvalde, Texas, were sorely disappointed.
Earlier, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the incident before speaking at an event with class and compassion, but Biden turned his remarks overtly political mere moments after he began speaking. And he is taking a lot of heat for it.
The Daily Wire notes:
The number of children killed in the Robb Elementary School tragedy climbed to 19 late on Tuesday after an 18-year-old male stormed the building and began opening fire before a U.S. Border Patrol agent reportedly rushed into the building and killed him.
Biden wasted no time politicizing the tragedy as he called for the nation to “stand up to the gun lobby” and “do what we all know in our gut needs to be done.”
Biden said that the notion that an adult could “walk into a gun store and buy” two modern sporting rifles was “just wrong.”
“What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?” Biden falsely suggested.
Biden then appeared to try and make a dark joke during his remarks, saying, “Deer aren’t running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God’s sake.”
“For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry,” Biden continued. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the lobbies?”
It’s not clear what law he and other Democrats have in mind that would have prevented this tragedy, but the killer broke federal and state laws by bringing his weapons onto school property in the first place. So there’s that. Secondly, any new “assault weapons ban” is likely to be as pointless as the first one signed into law during Bill Clinton’s presidency; 10 years later, when Republicans allowed it to expire, studies found that it had a negligible impact on shooting deaths.
Nevertheless, Democrats continue to use these horrible incidents to push for bans of entire classes of weapons, despite the fact that they are rarely used in murders (handguns, by a very large margin, are the weapon of choice for shooting deaths). There is also the constitutional question of banning guns.
Following his remarks, though, Biden was slammed on cable news and on social media.
“The President of the United States, frail, confused, bitterly partisan, desecrating the memory of recently murdered children with tired talking points of the Democratic Party, dividing the country in a moment of deep pain rather than uniting,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said.
Tucker Carlson on Biden’s speech: “The President of the United States, frail, confused, bitterly partisan, desecrating the memory of recently murdered children with tired talking points of the Democratic Party, dividing the country in a moment of deep pain rather than uniting.” pic.twitter.com/qVKvVr05p1
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) May 25, 2022
“Cry me a river Joe, just like Barack did in front of TV cameras every time innocent kids were shot dead,” political commentator Ajit Datta said. “You’re all essentially two sides of the same coin. Because if you were to really act on it, how would you ever champion this issue again?”
Political strategist Andrew Surabian wrote, “Bodies are still warm and Joe Biden rushes to politicize a tragedy in record time.”
Biden was especially raked over the coals for the attempt at humor.
“Why is he always making this stupid nonsensical joke, especially after a tragedy like this?” Alan Bayer, an IT Systems Security & Forensics Specialist, noted on Twitter. “What’s wrong with this guy?”
“Joe Biden cannot help but use that stupid, lazy, inappropriate gun joke about deer in Kevlar vests,” radio host Jason Rantz tweeted. “What a disgraceful moment in this inappropriately political speech. But yeah… he’s the unifier-in-chief.”
“The goal of deer-in-Kevlar is to get you to chuckle, then agree with his bad-faith point,” Rantz later added. “Did he want you to chuckle today? So disgusting.”
