Fox News is reporting that Prince Harry ignited a media firestorm when he stated during a podcast interview that he thinks the First Amendment is “bonkers.”
If that’s the case, he’s liable to cause a social and political earthquake if he ever takes a position on the Second Amendment.
Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, made the observation while appearing on an episode of “Armchair Expert,” the podcast hosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman.
Harry and wife, Meghan Markle, have set up housekeeping in Los Angeles. The Duke—not to be confused with American icon John Wayne—was holding forth on what he considers a media “feeding frenzy” when his every move is watched by the media, especially paparazzi. His mother, Princess Diana, died as the result of a car crash in which the driver of the car she was in was trying to elude photographers. That occurred in Paris in 1997.
Harry had been staying at the Beverly Hills mansion owned by actor/producer Tyler Perry. He told Shepard and Padman, “I don’t want to start sort of going down the First Amendment route because that’s a huge subject and one in which I don’t understand because I’ve only been here a short period of time,” Harry said. “But, you can find a loophole in anything. And you can capitalize or exploit what’s not said rather than uphold what is said.”
“I’ve got so much I want to say about the First Amendment as I sort of understand it, but it is bonkers,” he stated.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took issue with the remark, observing in a tweet, “Nice that he can say that.”
Nice that he can say that. https://t.co/rC9mGUPpEo
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 17, 2021
Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) chimed in with a tweet, “Well, I just doubled the size of my Independence Day party.”
Well I just doubled the size of my Independence Day party. https://t.co/cEIG0XUwZR
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 14, 2021
Others also got in on the bashing, including former Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1393008475681210371?s=20declared, “For Prince Harry to condemn the USA’s First Amendment shows he has lost the plot. Soon he will not be wanted on either side of the pond.”
And Dinesh D’Souza, the filmmaker and author asked rhetorically, “I wonder if he also thinks the Fourth Amendment is ‘bollocks’ and the 14th Amendment is ‘pish-posh.’”
Apparently, nobody wanted to approach the Second Amendment. That’s probably toxic, because it deals directly with how this country was born. The right to keep and bear arms is fascinating to many in the United Kingdom. They often contact gun rights advocates for comment when there is a high profile shooting in the U.S.
Many activists consider the Second Amendment to be the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights; the “insurance policy” built into the Constitution so citizens of the United States could resist tyranny, both foreign and domestic.
