You've got to hand it to the Democrats: they never let a crisis go to waste.
A little over a week ago, President Donald Trump was the target of a failed assassination attempt and today the Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle was in front of a House committee for a hearing on the security failures surrounding this event.
I'm watching the hearing live, and it's not going well for her. She's refusing to resign (and as President Biden is MIA, he won't fire her), but the most fascinating part of this hearing is how the Democrats on the committee are turning this hearing into a treatise on gun control.
Rep. Jamie Raskin started it off, calling for a ban on the AR-15 and 'assault weapons', followed by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who wants a ban on guns that can hold more than ten rounds (even though fewer shots than ten were fired in the assassination attempt), but no one was more unhinged than Rep. Gerry Connolly.
WATCH:
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) has a complete meltdown because Cheatle won't agree with his call to ban guns. pic.twitter.com/nPceQ2DAyS
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 22, 2024
He so desperately wanted Cheatle to say something about how guns are bad. And while Cheatle isn't answering many questions directly, she didn't take his bait.
I'm at a loss to understand how the violence faced by Connolly's staff -- which is horrific and wrong -- means someone like me (or any American) should have to lose her right to keep and bear arms. Connolly said a staffer was beaten by a baseball bat, yet he hasn't convenied a hearing on outlawing Major League Baseball.
This hearing should be about one thing and one thing only: how the Secret Service (and other government agencies) completely failed in their duty to protect the former president.
The timeline of the day Trump was shot is troubling, including an attempt by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to block Cheatle from testifying and reports Cheatle didn't have agents on the roof from which Crooks fired the shots because it was sloped.
The American people deserve answers.
What they do not deserve or need is political grandstanding from Democrats who are looking for any and all reasons to ban guns.
Note that Donald Trump -- the guy who was shot -- has not called for a ban on AR-15s, and he's the guy missing part of his right ear.
But here we are, with prominent House Democrats using their time not to question Cheatle, not to figure out why or how Crooks was able to access a roof and take several shots at the former president (shots that injured others in the crowd and killed Corey Comperatore), not demand accountability for what happened on July 13. They're using their time to demand law-abiding citizens lose their rights because of a would-be assassin.
It's what they do best: use a tragedy to push their political agenda. It's very hard to believe they're concerned about the security failures and the risk an incompetent Secret Service not only posed to Trump but poses to current President Biden and candidate Kamala Harris when they are screaming about banning assault weapons. And, frankly, I don't think they care about what happened on July 13. They're the ones who've told us for years that Donald Trump is a threat to American governance and democracy, what did they think would happen in this political climate?
It's shameful, or it would be, if the Democratic Party had any shame.
But they don't. All they see is a political opportunity to strip people like you and me of our Second Amendment rights.
