CNN host Poppy Harlow didn’t hold back during an interview segment with Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham during a morning show segment on Tuesday, pointing out that the governor’s ban on concealed and open-carry of firearms for 30 days in high-crime areas of her state was likely unconstitutional.
In a feisty back-and-forth, Harlow took Grisham to task over the ban, which largely applies to the city of Albuquerque, arguing that her public health executive order does not trump the Second Amendment or New Mexico’s own constitution.
“I’m focused on everyone’s Constitutional rights, not just those the NRA says I should be focused on,” Grisham said, using a typical Democrat talking point — the National Rifle Association — before Harlow cut her off, saying it’s not just the gun rights group that has concerns.
The governor then said she planned to impose civil penalties if police and other authorities won’t enforce the ban.
“It’s not for police to tell me what’s constitutional or not,” Grisham said. “These are NRA talking points about their rights and not about anybody’s else’s. And it’s not a ban, it’s a temporary pause.”
“But we also have Governor, the Constitution of New Mexico and the Constitution of the United States,” Harlow cut in. “Do you think you’re on solid constitutional ground here?”
“Well we’re gonna see,” Grisham said. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think I had the right, I have the right–”
“But where is the right?” Harlow interjected.
“In the state of New Mexico, public health – it’s a suspension, it’s not a ban,” Grisham countered in what appeared to be semantics.
“The New Mexico Constitution, Article II Section VI says ‘no law shall abridge the right of citizens to keep and bear arms for security and defense. No municipality or county shall regulate, in anyway, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms,’” Harlow recounted, “Are you not in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and your state’s constitution?”
“I don’t believe that we are. And if that narrow reading of the Constitution which has been tested in the state, we wouldn’t have universal background checks,” Grisham said, adding the state also has red flag laws and other gun control measures in place.
Harlow then reminded Grisham those laws were passed before the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rulings on the Second Amendment, including one in New York striking down a restrictive gun licensure law.
The CNN host then played a video clip of Grisham in an exchange with a reporter last week who asked if the governor believed criminals would abide by her ban, to which she answered flatly, “no.”
“You said ‘no’,” Harlow said. “Are you going to keep doing this? 30 days, 30 days, take it up to the Supreme Court, or is this about a statement right now?”
“Are you overreaching?” Harlow asked, going on to provide Grisham with a hypothetical in which a Republican governor created a public health emergency and then banned abortion even though the state legislature had not agreed to it. “Following your logic, would that also be sound?”
“Uh, uh, in this situation, I don’t think so, but that is what’s happening in this country,” Grisham said, claiming that she is “protecting everyone’s rights” while the hypothetical GOP governor is “restricting some rights.”
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