Of all the reasons to despise Republican politicians, the casual cruelty of this GOPer is right up there.
Jonathan Lemire set the scene on his "Up Too Early" show today.
"In other headlines, the father of a 17-year-old who was killed in a Parkland, Florida school shooting was arrested during a House Judiciary hearing on gun violence. It happened yesterday while Republican congressman Pat Fallon was asking panelists a series of questions with the argument that guns are, quote, merely a tool.
"So, Mr. Foster, your brace is not a ghost gun, correct?"
"Fuck you," Oliver yelled. (Can't blame him, right?)
"Is this an insurrection? So will they be held to the same -- I don't want another January 6th, do we?"
"If they try overthrow the government, they should be held to the same standard but I think they're trying to express their opinion..." Rep. David Cicciline said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The member's out of line," Fallon said.
"What a remarkably terrible thing to say," Lemire said. (He's right.)
Shortly after that, the committee went into recess and that's when Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost, also a survivor of gun violence, took this video of Oliver being arrested.
Here's the kind of legislative lion Pat Fallon is, via Wikipedia:
Fallon co-authored a 2013 Texas law that allows students and employees of independent school districts to say "Merry Christmas" rather than the secular "Happy Holidays".
He also voted to block President Biden's certification as president. He's the CEO of a political T-shirt business, so rest assured his performative behavior is also personally lucrative.
It's not as if there's a gun violence problem. After all, they're just tools, amirite?
