After he blamed the Santa Fe, Texas school shooting on Ritalin and the violent “culture,” incoming NRA president Oliver North pretended he had not criticized the Parkland, Florida student gun-control activists when he accused them of getting swept up in a propaganda machine of “intimidation,” “harassment” and “lawbreaking” that “confused” Americans.
During his interview on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked North about a quote (in bold below) in an interview published May 9, 2018 by The Washington Times:
He said the young survivor-activists who have emerged as representatives for gun restrictions — and as fierce opponents of the NRA — are getting swept up by a broader propaganda machine.
“What they did very successfully with a frontal assault, and now intimidation and harassment and lawbreaking, is they confused the American people,” he said. “Our job is to get the straight story out about what happened there, and to make sure that kind of thing doesn’t happen again because the proper things are being done with the advocacy of the NRA.”
North claimed yesterday that quote had been taken out of context, though there was no update to The Washington Times article indicating any clarification from North.
NORTH: Look it, I -- that is taken out of context as people are fond of saying in our business. I was talking about the people who organized the harassment, the vandalism, the threats, the hacking and showing the full force of the First Amendment against the Second Amendment. And they are leading the cause.
I'm not -- these kids aren't the problem. They are being used by forces far bigger than they are to make sure that the Second Amendment goes away.
WALLACE: Who is using the Parkland students?
NORTH: We know that -- we know what Mayor Bloomberg was up to. We know what George Soros has funded. I mean, in our business, his creations have gone after you, me and everybody else.
WALLACE: Cameron Kasky would say he is speaking and working for himself and those other kids.
NORTH: OK. But my point being I was not criticizing those kids.
Maybe North’s criticism wasn’t directed at the kids. But he certainly did not make much of an effort to distinguish them from the people supposedly using them.
Also, memo to North: calling teenagers unwitting dupes of people you painted as evil, is not all that much better than criticizing the teens directly.
Watch North try to wriggle away from his own rhetoric below, from the May 20, 2018 Fox News Sunday.
(Transcript excerpt via FoxNews.com)
Originally published at Newshounds.us
