Via TPM:
The National Rifle Association is scheduled to hold a press conference Friday at 10:45 a.m. ET at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre is also scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning.
My prediction: The NRA will blame video games, Hollywood and probably mental illness. If they do bring up the mental illness card, my bet is that they tie it into video games and Hollywood. I’m also betting that guns won’t factor into their blame game. I’d like to be wrong, but… I doubt it. Bonus points if they go down the path of saying, “Now is not the time to discuss guns and politicize this tragedy.” That would be amazing, and I would hope they wouldn’t be this stupid, but…
UPDATE: There was just an amazing exchange on Morning Joe. I had it on as I typed this post, so I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll post the video when it’s available. Basically, a Republican Congressman (Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS)) – after blaming video games (Told ya! There’s the talking point!) – accused Joe Scarborough of politicizing the Newtown massacre by mentioning gun control. Joe was outraged and fired back that, if that were true, then the Congressman politicized it by mentioning video games. The Congressman, of course, disagreed and then questioned Joe on how many children he had. OMG! The entire Morning Joe team was stunned. Hell, I was stunned.
Interestingly, once the Congressman left the Morning Joe crew linked his bad, non-negotiable behavior to Republicans in Congress – saying, how can anyone work with that? Oh my.
Here’s the video. I just watched it again and I’m thinking we’ve just seen what to expect from the NRA Press Conference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K1205PjQeHA#!
And here’s part of the transcript:
SCARBOROUGH: To push a political agenda?
HUELSKAMP: Oh, absolutely. This president and his folks are using this to push –
SCARBOROUGH: Let’s talk about September 11th, Congressman. Were there some changes made in this country because of the tragedy of September 11th? Was that just using a tragedy, 3,000 deaths, to try to make americans safer? Do you dare come on my show and say I am using the slaughter of 20 little 6 and 7-year-old children, I’m using that for political purposes, Tim?
HUELSKAMP: Joe, how many children do you have?
SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got four children, Tim. Answer my question.
HUELSKAMP: So do I. And I refuse to let you say that because you have children, or anybody else, that we need to actually politicize this. But I see folks in Washington — I don’t know about you. I don’t watch your show. You’re trying to politicize this.
SCARBOROUGH: Tim, I’m not going to let you say that I am, quote, politicizing the slaughter of 20 children. But you said anybody talking about this…. So we can’t at least talk about guns without you questioning my integrity and saying that I’m using the death of 20 children to try to make life for my children a little bit safer? We can’t even talk about it without you coming on this show and insulting me personally?
It actually gets better after this exchange, because that’s where Huelskamp goes after Joe’s parenting bona fides.