Ari Melber's show, The Beat, usually ends the week with a fun segment called "Fallback Friday" which allows the panel of 3 guests and Ari to talk about who or what needs to "Fallback". Normally it is a lighthearted segment with lots of interesting and humorous references to pop culture, people in the news, etc.
Today, the segment was different. It had to be. It was just 7 hours after another horrific school shooting, this one in Santa Fe, Texas, where 10 people were murdered.
The panel, consisting of Ari Melber, Liz Winstead, Pras, Xilla, talked about
it is friday after a tough week by any measure. we often take in a few big moments with fallback friday. tonight we'll begin with a national conversation around violence and guns in our schools. i'm very excited about who we have here. a member of the great hip-hop group the fujis. he has a new ep coming out dropping on tuesday. i'm also joined by the film blogger and journalist zila who's done many ranges of interviews, including demi moore and pharrell and many others. and then an old friend of msnbc and co-creator of "the daily show" liz winsted. thanks to all of you for being here. i'm excited to do this. liz, i'm going to begin with the conversation that's everywhere. your thoughts as someone who deals with comedy but also politics and here we are with another shooting.
Liz Winsted, one of the co-creators of "The Daily Show" said that the idea of arming teachers needs to fall back. She said:
"I think in the theme of falling at what point are we going to stop saying 'let's arm the teachers'. I think that we don't arm our teachers with enough resources to actually teach. We don't actually arm people with resources for anything, and so to actually focus on guns as a resource that is good and going to help our children, our education, the health of our people.
Xilla jumped in with a critique of "Thoughts and Prayers:
"I think we should fall back with thoughts and prayers. It's time to do something. Thoughts and prayers are absolutely enough because they can't help. If you really care, we've got to stop being fake mad and move policy and move the issue forward. No disrespect to anybody religious, I love the lord. I am super religious myself but god doesn't come in and pull these guns out of people's hands.
We need something that's going to -- no one wants to take guns from everybody. Make it harder. I can drive a car, doesn't mean I can drive an 18-wheeler. I need a different license. There needs to be common sense rules. Do something. We didn't do anything after Sandy hook, Columbine, anything after Parkland. do something."
Ari addressed the fact that this is endemic, that they have to cover what is happening.
He pointed out a horrific statistic: "According to an LA Times report, a gun has been fired on campuses since Sandy Hook once a week, which includes murders, it includes attempted shootings which don't even make the national news and it includes suicides."
Pras added this brilliant fallback: Special Interest Groups.
It was a great segment, very layered, with a great little immigration debate at the end about Melania. As always, Ari brings panels together of really dynamic people to talk about the most serious issues in the news.
