Monday’s White House press briefing came after initial reports on the deadly shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee that left six people (three students, three adults) dead and thus gave reporters to flaunt their liberal views.
Most notably, NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell channeled Rahm Emanuel by ghoulishly speculating the reports of the shooter being a woman could represent a “breakthrough” against those backward Americans stuck in their “gun culture.”
As of the briefing, O’Donnell made clear the liberal media wouldn’t let this shooting go to waste, starting by remarking “[t]he shooting in Nashville has an usual component in that the gunman is actually a woman, an adult woman has been identified now, 28 years old.”
O’Donnell continued, trashing Tennessee as “obviously a state with a gun culture as a part of its identity for many Tennesseans who live there and believe in a gun culture” and before wondering that this could work to Biden’s advantage.
She then asked whether President Biden has “any expectation” that “having a female suspect…could be a point for him to address to try to breakthrough on a subject that has, thus far, not made changes in the legislative realm.”
Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the gender because she wanted to remain “mindful” despite having seen “those reportings [sic].” On guns, she said Biden would “continue to take action to reduce gun violence because this is a priority for him and he wants to save lives” and hoped Congress would “enact common gun law reforms”.
The Associated Press’s Aamer Madhani had another hack-tastic question:
On — on — on Nashville, you pointed to last year’s bipartisan reforms as well as alluded to the executives you took, I think, just a few weeks ago. And then you also pointed — it’s not a panacea. But is there any disappointment from the administration that these efforts haven’t had more of an effect on lessening the scourge of terrible violence?
There’s the word: “disappointment.” Notice how, all too often, journalists bemoan with their elected allies about how circumstances or the populace writ large either won’t conform to their desires or won’t think like them.
Jean-Pierre took the ball and ran with Madhani’s premise, lamenting in part that “we need to take more action,” including the need for Congress “to ban assault — assault — assault weapons…so that our children are safe in schools, so that our communities are not torn apart and we’ve been very clear about that.”
To see the relevant transcript from March 27’s briefing, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via Washington Post Live]
March 27, 2023
2:02 p.m. EasternAAMER MADHANI: On — on — on Nashville, you pointed to last year’s bipartisan reforms as well as alluded to the executives you took, I think, just a few weeks ago. And then you also pointed — it’s not a panacea. But is there any disappointment from the administration that these efforts haven’t had more of an effect on lessening the scourge of terrible violence?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Well, I don’t have the data in front of me on what the President’s executive actions has [sic] been able to do. Clearly, those are actions that he was able to do on the federal level. But the President has been very clear, we need to take — we need to take more action. We actually need to ban assault — assault — assault weapons. We need to take more action so that our children are safe in schools, so that our communities are not torn apart and we’ve been very clear about that. The President’s going to continue to be consistent. He mentioned that at the State of the Union when he had an opportunity to just not speak in front of Congress, but also speak in front of the American people. We have to do more. The President has to — has done almost as much as he can from the federal level to show how important this is to him. And this is something that he has been working on since he was Senator, right? 30 years ago when the first assault ban weapons passed, it was because of the work partially of the of then-Senator Biden. So, again, he’s going to continue to call on Congress to act. This is — this is — you know, we can’t keep seeing what we saw today. Right now, we’re hearing six kids. Six, elementary kids dead.
MADHANI: Three kids and three adults.
JEAN-PIERRE: And — and so, this cannot be happening. Our administrators, our educators cannot be — their lives can’t be put on the line here, when they’re going to teach our kids and the President’s going to continue to speak out and Congress needs to act.
(….)
2:15 p.m. Eastern
KELLY O’DONNELL: The shooting in Nashville has an usual component in that the gunman is actually a woman, an adult woman has been identified now, 28 years old. Does the President have any expectation that, when looking for a new way to talk about gun violence, we’ve been through Sandy Hook in the Obama years, we’ve been through Uvalde in this administration, looking for some way to have circumstances change how Americans feel about it — Tennessee is obviously a state with a gun culture as a part of its identity for many Tennesseans who live there and believe in a gun culture — do you think there is any component of this like having a female suspect — highly unusual, like, in single digit percentage of this — that could be a point for him to address to try to breakthrough on a subject that has, thus far, not made changes in the legislative realm?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, I know that the reporting on the shooting is still coming out, so don’t — I want to be very mindful and not get — I’ve heard that — I’ve heard — or watched those reportings as well before coming out, so just want to be mindful, to don’t want to get ahead of — I’m sure there will be an investigation, they’ll look into it, just want to be careful from here. Look, the President’s going to continue to take action to reduce gun violence because this is a priority for him and he wants to save lives. He thinks it’s important, clearly, to save lives and he believes that more must be done and that is something that you’ve heard from the President multiple times, sadly, when this has occurred. But he’s also going to continue to ask Congress to enact common gun law reforms that is something that must be done in the legislation — right — in the legislative branch. And so, you know, and that’s including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity, magazine, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers, who — who knowingly put weapons of war on the streets. And so, those are things that they can do. Those are — those are things that Congress ca actually act on if they come together and take action. And so, we’re going to — we can’t — we can’t — this is not something I want to do and I’m sure this is not what all of you want to cover is these types of shootings over and over and over again. This is certainly not what the President wants to keep talking about. And giving condolences to family members and — and communities. This is not okay. So, we’re going to continue to call on Congress to act. We’re going to see what else we can do. The President just announced something — an action recently because he believed he wanted to make sure that we did everything that we can from the federal government even after taking historic actions. So, again, this is a sad day for our country, for the people of Nashville and our hearts go out to them.