Joe Biden is being criticized in an editorial for comments he made on television in the aftermath of the massive Washington, D.C. protest at the Capitol, and he is also taking heat from two gun rights organizations, which could be a signal about how the next four years will go with him in the White House.
The Washington Examiner went after Biden over the weekend for his post-protest observation, “No one can tell me if it had been a group of Black Lives Matters protesters yesterday, they would not have been treated very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that’s true. And it is unacceptable — totally unacceptable.”
The president-elect is widely known for making political gaffes but this time he appears to have tried playing the race card, and it is blowing up in his face. The Washington Examiner editorial called his statement “nonsense,” and it didn’t stop there.
“Rioters swarming the Capitol Building were battered and tear-gassed,” the editorial recalled. “One woman was shot and killed by Capitol Police. That matches the total number of rioters killed by police across the country through the entire summer of Black Lives Matter unrest and rioting, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project.
“Everyone already knows what happens when BLM protesters take to the streets opposite the police,” the newspaper said.” In one city after another, police forces were sidelined and ordered to watch as mobs looted, set buildings on fire, and in one case even established their own anarchic polity. The results were tragic and, in dozens of cases, lethal.
“So far, Biden has not served as the unifying presence he promised,” the editorial added.
The president-elect made no friends in the firearms community when he nominated Judge Merrick Garland to be the next attorney general. Garland is, according to the National Rifle Association, “a noted Second Amendment opponent.”
“Garland does not believe the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms,” NRA said in a news release. “On March 9, 2007, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a ruling in Parker v. District of Columbia, the precursor to Heller v. District of Columbia. The opinion struck down the District of Columbia’s complete ban on the civilian ownership of handguns and recognized that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. Expressing disapproval of the panel’s ruling, Garland voted to rehear the case.”
As if that weren’t enough, the Second Amendment Foundation is going after Biden for a tweet he posted in support of former Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords who survived an assassination attempt ten years ago to become an outspoken gun control advocate. Six people were killed by the gunman, who passed a background check to purchase the gun used in the crime that left Giffords partly disabled.
Biden vowed to work with Giffords “to defeat the NRA and end our epidemic of gun violence.”
But SAF’s Alan Gottlieb declared, “Joe Biden has labored relentlessly for decades to reduce the Second Amendment to rubble. He may attack one group by name, but his goal is to crush the rights of every gun owner in our country.
“By attacking the Second Amendment Rights of 100 million Americans,” Gottlieb continued, “Biden is not bringing us together but dividing us further. If people take to the streets in protest, if violence occurs it will be his fault and he should be impeached for violating our constitutional rights and inciting violence. Maybe it is time to ban him from Twitter and Facebook!”
This week, SAF is launching a television advertising campaign to acquaint millions of gun owners with the 2nd Amendment First Responder program. A one-minute message warning gun owners about Biden’s anti-gun agenda will appear at least 40 times this week on DirecTV, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, One America News Network, CNBC, HLN, Bloomberg and Dish TV.
Yet, it may be the conclusion of the Examiner’s editorial that summed things up regarding what appears to be Biden’s willingness to inject race politics into his criticism of the capitol demonstration. The president-elect and his running mate, the newspaper asserted, “had to use this incident once again to promote the toxic, race-obsessed politics that will evidently become a mainstay in the Biden administration.”
But the closing lines of the editorial were grim.
“The events of (last) week, beginning with Trump’s incitement of the mob, demonstrate why few people will miss Trump after he leaves office,” the editorial said. “But this incident adds one more grave reason to doubt that Biden is capable of making things better.”
