Man-Made Crises

let me tell you something. I watched a part of the press conference that the Uvaldi Police gave where the Department of Public Safety Director Stephen McCraw said, quote from the benefit of hindsight from where I'm sitting now, of course, it was the wrong decision, the wrong decision, the wrong decision to have police officers not enter a building when there was an active shooter killing nineteen children, three adults, wounding god knows how many, because we haven't had that

information in releasing its entirety for an hour, one hour, that shooter was allowed to walk the hallways, go into classrooms. I'm wondering that did the police officers that were standing outside, did they hear the screams of the children in their

classrooms screaming for their parents, screaming for their lives? How did they sleep that night when they got home, Because you know, there are other reports that came out that those very same officers went into the building to get their own fucking kids, but not the kids of other people. Reports came out that the very same officers that were sitting outside. You know, by the way, they have guns, right,

I'm pretty sure elementary school students don't. But they decided to save their own children and save their own lives while turning teachers into heroes. Teachers don't sign up to do military training. We have Republicans like fucking Ted Crews saying, oh, well, we just need to arm teachers. Ron Desantists did the

same thing in fucking Florida. Adding more guns in schools is not how we should be dealing with school shootings where shooters use one kind of fucking weapon and AAR fifteen, and AAR fifteen with bump magazine capacity allows you to fire off hundreds of bullets without even having to think about reloading. Do you think that the framers of the Constitution who said that folks had a right to bear arms, we're thinking about magazine capacities that could mow down an

entire classroom without the shooter breaking a fucking sweat. I don't think so. The interpretation the purity with which the fucking Supreme Court wants to interpret the Constitution these days is bullshit. Because you see the world changes and evolves and regardless of how much they want to hold us with their death grip in the past, we will break

free one way or the fucking other. The rage that I feel these days, coupled with the absolute crippling grief, it is like this continued vacillation between these emotions that I know that I'm not the only one that is swinging back and forth on because it's the grief that we know that a R fifteens and fucking military grade assault weapons are not part of your constitutional right to

bear fucking arms. They're not. I don't understand. While military grade fucking weapons is considered a goddamn hobby, how is death your hobby. I'm just you know, folks, these days, these days have just gotten so hard and so long. And I think about the families of Buffalo and how now all of the attention is on Uvaldi. And I'm certain that in the next week or two there'll be another mass shooting, and maybe this person will kill twenty five kids or twenty five black people, aunties and grandmas

and uncles and dads. Joe Biden is doing nothing. And I say that with the fullness of my understanding of the Congress, that he is up against But when I hear a fucking career politician say that we need bipartisan legislation, motherfucker. You've been in the Senate for how long. If there was an opportunity for bipartisan legislation, it's sure as fuck

wasn't coming out of this goddamn Congress. And if it didn't happen in the last forty years when you were a senator and then the other fucking eight when you were a Vice president, what the fuck makes you think it's going to happen now? All of it is just lip service while families are literally planning the services of their dead loved ones, not from heart attack, not from tragic natural disasters. Know from our own own man made crises. And I say man made because it is white, male

made fucking crises. I am sick and tired. I'm sick and tired. I hear you know that Fanny lu Hamer quote when she said, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, Like I'm sick and tired of crying, I'm sick and tired of yelling. I'm sick and tired

of these goddamn stories over and over again. White supremacy, coupled with fucking gun mass shootings, coupled with fucking out of control pandemic, coupled with fucking climate change, coupled with VOTU suppression, coupled with a fucking criminal ex president who is continuing to spread lies and increase violence in this country, coupled with a fucking news station that is not regulated at all and is just continuing to brainwash and incite violence,

and no one is doing anything except offering thoughts and prayers. Fuck your thoughts and prayers. They don't do shit. We continue to say we need to vote, we need to vote. We are voting. These are the motherfuckers who are being voted in. Did you see and I mentioned this last week? Bet to our work. Bett our Work is running for

governor of Texas. Bet to our work instead of going to a fucking fundraiser like Governor Abbott did following the massacre and his bullshit press conference when he wants to talk about the school needing more doors as opposed to the fact that he lowered the age of gun licenses from twenty one to eighteen. Fuck it, why not make it sixteen? Fuck it? Why not just give them guns? At birth, because you're sure as fuck don't give kids anything else, not in this goddamn state and not in

this fucking country. It's outrageous. And if you are not outraged, then you're not paying attention. Bulletproof backpacks, sword in sales. How the fuck does this make sense? Like, if I am looking outside of America, at America, I'm saying, man, that country is filled with a bunch of fucking backwards ass lunatics who care about nothing but causing harm, who care about nothing but violence, who care about not even

each other nothing. How do you hold the title of president, of Senator, of member of Congress and you do nothing with the power that the people have given you. AOC last week went live and in the video clip that I watched, she's just like, you know, I'm just gonna be fucking real. It ain't just Republicans. The entire Democratic establishment is a bunch of complacent ass status quo having

feckless people. She's like, you want to blame everything on the Republicans, and that's true, they're terrible, but let's be clear that the Democrats are not doing anything to build anybody's pipeline. They're not doing anything to serve the actual people, because, like I said, last week, when was the last time they were with the people? And so now what can we look forward to the Department of Justice doing any type of investigation into the Yivaldi Police Department. I'm certain not.

I don't know what the fuck did Department of Justice is doing, but it seems like a whole bunch of nothing. So they seem to have a lot of time on their hands. Maybe you want to figure out how you have police officers stand outside and listen to gunshots going off that are riddling the bodies of children. Maybe figure out why they decided to bring in ice before they brought in the fucking help that those kids could have used, why they were putting parents in handcuffs as opposed to

the fucking shooter. Coming up next, friends, my conversation with our good friend Glenn Kirshner to discuss the latest in where we are with the investigation into Donald Trump and to talk about what Joe Biden isn't doing. That's coming up next, folks. You know that when I have the opportunity each and every week to talk to our friend Glenn Kirshner, host of Justice Matters and MSNBC legal analyst.

We get up to speed on all of the things that can be happening should be happening with the Department of Justice. But isn't all the things that Biden should be doing. But he is not Glenn. This has been yet another just very long, long, depressing, violent week. Talk to us about how is it that Greg Abbott in Texas can just change all of these laws. Twenty one it was the age to get a gun in Texas.

He dropped it within the year to eighteen. The shooter in Uvaldi was eighteen years old, able to get two AR fifteens in the course of twenty four hours and three hundred and seventy five or so rounds of ammunition. No red flag, no nothing. No one's being held responsible for anything that is happening. The cops, I just learned, stood outside because they didn't want to be shot, So for an hour no one entered the building while children and teachers were being slaughtered. I just tell me, like,

where are our laws? Why is one amendment outweigh all of the other ones. The Supreme Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment is a flipping farce, and Greg Abbott is an irredeemable human being who's putting assault weapons in the hands of children, teenagers, and this is the predictable result,

and he doesn't care. What I really beside myself about at this point, Danielle, is that our federal government, our executive branch, our president, who I think has done a wonderful job trying to save our democracy in many respects, is not taking action. I don't want to hear. Let's come together as Democrats and Republicans and find a legislative fixed. Joe Biden is a product of the Senate for about twelve hundred years. Okay, that's an for a very long time.

If he could have fixed this problem legislatively, he would have. They can't. And if you thought they couldn't tend twenty thirty years ago, they really can't fix it legislatively now. But you know what Joe Biden could do. He could pick up his pen and he could start signing executive orders. If I were president, I would sign a hundred executive orders in a hundred days. And when my right hand cramped up and fell off, I'd learned how to use

my left hand. When you look back at our nation's history, the Emancipation Proclamation was accomplished via executive orders. Desegregation in Little Rock, in large part, was accomplished by executive orders. President Roosevelt signed more than thirty seven hundred executive orders

dealing with the Great Depression and World War Two. And we have to acknowledge executive orders were sometimes used improperly, like to put Japanese Americans into internment camps, and they were used with evil and malice in one's heart, like the Muslim band. But so much can be accomplished with

executive orders. When you realize that we have our brothers and sisters being slaughtered, our children being slaughtered, first at Sandy Hook, and now this we have our Hispanic American brothers and sisters being slaughtered in El Paso, Asian American brothers and sisters being slaughtered while they worship, our Jewish brothers and sisters being slaughtered in their synagogue, our African American brothers and sisters being slaughtered when they're shopping for groceries.

Are LGBTQ brothers and sisters at the Pulse nightclub, And we sit here and we do nothing. Nothing. President Biden could pick up his pen and in twenty four hours, get his deep constitutional thinkers in the executive branch to help craft an executive order that we think might withstand a legal challenge, a constitutional challenge I here by BAM high capacity magazines period. And then you go into court

and you fight for what's right. You know, you fight against the suit that will be brought by the Russian compromised, you know, Republicans taking MRA money. You fight for what's right and for goodness sakes, if you lose in court, there's no shame in that you have fought to protect the American people. I declare a state of national emergency. This is a public health emergency. All of those people who have been slaughtered that we were just mentioning, we

do nothing. We do nothing, and that needs to change. And that can change tomorrow with President Biden starting to sign executive orders and let the litigation come. If we lose in court, Danielle, the judges will say, here is how this executive order stepped its toe over the constitutional line, just like and I hate to cite this as an example.

Trump's first Muslim band was struck down I believe, if I'm not misremembering, and he retooled based on what that disgusting administration learned from the litigation and he fine tuned it, and I think the second band was upheld. Why can't we do that in the gun arena? The answer is we can, but we're not because it's a political calculation. I don't want to hear about political calculations when all of those populations are being slaughtered. So let's get off

the diamond. Let's do something. Hey, I'm David Plots of Slaves. Political Gabfest. As another election season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all the noise and the news. Each week, on the Gabfest, John Dickerson, Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break down the races, and tell you what issues really matter. We do not always agree, We definitely do not always agree, but we always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have a good time. So

subscribe to Slate's Political Gapfest, new episodes every Thursday. It's no secret that the news is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's The Bituation Room podcast, hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Erntini for a lighter take on the heavy staff. Each week, The Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts and activists to break down the issues in a way that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket.

Get the Bituation Room on Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on YouTube and Twitch. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I listened to a reporter, Glenn, and I believe that the reporter was from the UK. He was from Europe, I will say, and he's asking Ted Cruz to his face. He said, this is a uniquely American problem, and the world wants to understand. Is this what it means when you say American exceptional that you have these assault rifles? They're like, nowhere else in the

world does this happen? Nowhere else in the world. Are we selling bulletproof backpacks which have just sword in sales, bulletproof backpacks. We would rather do not a goddamn thing, And that includes the President of the United States to do nothing. And you're right about the political calculations, because all everybody is calculating is their own neck and is their own pocket. That is the calculation. The NRA. Glenn is getting ready to hold a convention in Houston. In Houston, Texas.

One of the headliners Greg Abbott, and guess what, there are no guns allowed because they're afraid. But our children are supposed to be spending part of their instructional time learning to flee from a gunman, learning what to do when the school is locked down because there is an active shooter on the campus. I don't understand what actions

should the Department of Justice be taking. Why is it the Department of Justice taking action against Greg Abbott and the fact that he is literally, to your point, placing guns in the hands of children eighteen to get a gun, but you have to be twenty one to drink. I'm confused. These numbers are arbitrary. Why not just give them a gun? Went after birth? Right? What action, if any, can the Department of Justice take should take that this president is

not taking all they deliver to us our thoughts and prayers. Yeah, I mean, I guess Abbott will probably try to have Texas institute a cradle to the grave gun possession mandate. Oh you're born, here's your birth certificate. Here's that nice little hat we put on your head to keep warm, baby, and here's your semi automatic rifle. You know what can the Department of Justice do. Part of the challenge is the Department of Justice and the executive branch generally, and

this will bring back the executive order discussion. They can only enforce the laws, and when you have a Supreme Court who has so obviously misrepresented what the Second Amendment really means. The Second Amendment, as we both know, says a well regulated militia being necessary to a free state, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. They are actually two qualifiers in the introductory clause that frame the right to bear arms, well regulated and militia.

The Supreme Court, in its zeal to make sure we are awashi and nuns, reads those two qualifiers out of the Second Amendment because one, these children running around with assault rifles are not members of a militia, and they're sure not well regulated, either as members of a militia or as individuals who are simply keeping and bearing arms. It's such a travesty what the Supreme Court has done in the Second Amendment arena, but part of it hamstrings

both the Department of Justice. They can only enforce the laws that are on the books, and admittedly, what President Biden can do on the executive order front, because he can't create law, he can only faithfully enforce the law. But that doesn't mean he can't use executive orders to promulgate safety regulations in many ways for our nation, as

other presidents have done over time. That's where I believe he should take a stab at crafting an executive order that at a minimum outlaws prohibits I shouldn't use the word outlaw prohibits and regulates high capacity magazines because why must we give these mass murders an opportunity to kill without reloading? Why? Why? Where is that in the Second

Amendment or in the founders intent? They had dang muskets back then, don't tell me the Founders intended unlimited then did clip magazines so mass murderers wouldn't have to reload? Are you flipping kidding me? So? Yeah? But what But here's the thing, Because all of that is accurate and right, But the reality is is that we allow these gun rights people to be able to advocate and say, oh my god, it'll be a slippery slope. If they ban

high capacity magazines, then my gun is going to be next. Right, How is it that they're able to apply that logic, but women are not able to apply the same logic when it comes to the ban on abor. Shit right, Oh that, then it's birth control, then it's this, then it's that. It's like, I don't understand how we're living in a country that believes that books and uteruses are more of a threat than an AR fifteen. It just

it is. I feel Glenn in insane, and I honestly don't understand the lack of urgency from this administration on this issue. When you say that the president can, I mean, we know that executive orders can be overturned in and next administration, So let's worry about that the next time around. Let's worry about that in twenty twenty four. How many lives could be saved between now and the next election.

I just I don't And there's tell me this, Is there anything that the people can do that the people we the people can do, because people right now feel absolutely powerless. The people in Buffalo, they're afraid to go to their community center, they're afraid to leave their homes. The people of Uvaldi are trying to figure out with dental records identify their children because their bodies have been ripped to shrides, what can the people do? Because the

people are exhausted and terrified. If you and I had an answer to the question of what more the people could do that had any hope of really moving the ball forward, you know, you and I, we would be on the rooftop screaming it at the top of our lungs. We would never shut up. And I wish I had

a satisfactory answer right now. What I hope doesn't happen is that with as frustrated and upset and anxious and desperate and fearful as we are, all of us who give a who give a flip about our democracy, who give a flip about our children, or about all of our brothers and sisters whose lives are at risk every day because of the Greg Abbots of the world, and the Mitch McConnell's of the world, and the Romneys of the world, who takes more and our money than anybody else.

What I don't want to see happen is that we just kind of go into a corner and give up because and I hesitate to say it, and I laugh at myself because I know we have state legislatives, legislatures trying to nullify our votes. We still have to vote in numbers too big to rig and too real to steal. We still have to contact every elected representative, from our city council member to our senator and everybody in between. I don't care if they're going to be receptive to

our constituent calls or not. We still have to do it. And you know, citizens, nonprofit organizations, lots of entities apart from government, are actually doing some really hard work to

save our democracy and keep us safe. Not only the anti gun groups, but you know these groups like People for Free Speech who are in court every day trying to get the Madison Cawthorne's disqualified from the ballot, trying to get the Marjorie Taylor Greens, and the Paul Gostars and Mastriano, that idiot from Pennsylvania disqualified from the ballot.

That's us, that's five citizens doing it. So yes, there are lots of ways that we can engage, and I have to preach that getting engaged, you know, being a pole worker, being somebody who goes out and you know, Campick canvases for a politician who, if elected you actually have faith in, will try to do the right thing.

Difficult though it may be working the phones, I mean helping some of these nonprofits that are actually attacking these problems, trying to fill the vacuum left by government sloth and in action. We all have to keep doing it. It doesn't feel like it's having an impact, but if we stop doing it, then we're just giving it all over to the greg Abbots of the world. Glenn, with a few minutes that we have left, there has been some developments with regard to Trump the insurrection, and you have

learned some things that I was not aware of. So because my mind has been completely on you know, mass shootings and massacres. Where are we with Donald Trump at the insurrection as we prepare I guess upcoming in a few weeks for the prime time hearings. Yeah, really blockbuster reporting. I know we say that a lot. Nothing actually seems to bust the block I don't know if that's a thing.

But the New York Times reported that Donald Trump said as the insurrection raged, as the capital was under attack, he said two things to Mark Meadows. One he said he was angry. He was upset that Mike Pence was being whisked away to safety while the Capitol was being attacked. The second thing he said, which is even more breathtaking, but maybe of less consequence. Ultimately, he said maybe, as his angry mob was chanting hang Mike Pence, he said,

maybe Mike Pence should be hanged. And Mark Meadows recounted that to his Mark Meadows aids, who then told the J six Committee. Of course Mark Meadows is going to claim all his aids are lying, which is absurd. You hired them sport. So the second comment needs no further explanation.

This morning, I couldn't help but tweet with a little two minute direct clip on Twitter that Trump equals trees and end of equation, because if you read the law of treason, it says, if you take an oath of allegiance to the United States and you levy war, you wage war against the United States, You've committed the crime of trees. And Donald Trump has give me three hours

and I'll prove it in a court of law. The first statement is even more interesting because the whole goal of the stop the steal, the fake ellect, there's all this kind of nonsense, was to delay the certification of Joe Biden's win for as long as possible, hoping maybe we can throw it to the states and then have one state, one vote, decide who the president is. And there are more Republican legislatures than there are Democrat legislatures, so Trump wins, even though that runs contrary to the

popular vote in the electoral college count. So wouldn't you think, Danielle, that Donald Trump would be pleased that Mike Pence was being whisked away from the Capitol to safety. Why because that would delay the vote and it would at least forward I want to overturn the election ball. But that's not who Donald Trump is. Nope, Donald Trump was angry that Mike Pence was being whisked away to safety, and then he followed it up with maybe Mike Pence should

be hanged. That is who Donald Trump is. And I when I see each piece of damning evidence reported, I become more convinced, not less convinced, that the Department of Justice will indict Donald Trump and all his co conspirators for what they did. And I just did a deep dive piece, Danielle that will go up on MSNBC Daily

either today or tomorrow. And I'm going to say I'm really proud of it because what it does is It takes the interplay between the January sixth Committee, the thousand witnesses they've presented, and the Department of Justice, which everybody accuses of investigative slow right, and it really analyzes what I believe is going on. And the question I pose up front is there a method to this investigative madness?

And there ultimately is. I don't know that it's entirely satisfying, but I hope people will read this not because I want lots of clicks, but because I do an explainer that I think is counterintuitive, because even I, as a former career DJ prosecutors, say, oh my god, I want these thousand witnesses first before Congress so I can indict everybody and then let Congress do its job, because indicting them is more important than future legislation to prevent this

from happening in the future. But there are some things that play that I don't think are intuitive, and I don't think you would know unless you've been on the inside. So I'm hoping that that is helpful in adding something to the anxiety level that may help reduce it just a little bit. You know. I have to say that now, just in closing. Now, I become a little nervous about an indictment of Donald Trump in a time when violence

is at an all time high in this country. And what is kind of swimming around in my head right now is if that news breaks, let's just say, you know, before midterm elections would be a great time. What the response is going to be of his And there is no way to say I don't care what their response is going to be because they have more guns than we do. Yeah, but they're weaker than we are. They're better armed, but they're weaker, and they do not have

righteousness on their side. They don't have decency and empathy and inclusivity. They don't have any of that on their side. In Danielle, not to be cavalier about it, we have fought a revolutionary war, we have fought a civil war. I don't want to fight any more wars, either internally or externally if we can help it. But are some things worth fighting for? I think they are. So I'm not saying consequences be damned, because I don't want to

see Americans hurt left right, center anywhere. But we have to do what's right and let the chips fall and then deal with those chips while they fall, because we have to do what's right. You're right, Glenn Kirshner. As always, thank you so much for making the time to join wik f Folks check out Glenn's Peace at MSNBC dot com and you know, share it, share it widely. We appreciate you, Glenn, and we'll talk again soon. Thanks, Daniel,

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