Speaker 1: All right. We are now going to talk about the NRA convention, which took place over
the weekend. It took place not that far in the same state of Texas where the shooting happened
earlier the same week in Uvalde, Texas, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott bailed on speaking
there. Some others bailed as well. Understandably, it looks absolutely terrible to go and speak
at the place that celebrates more guns in more places right after this horrifying mass
shooting that took place in Uvalde. But Ted Cruz insisted on speaking and so did Donald Trump,
one of the sickest and most dangerous events I have ever seen. We covered it live. Ted Cruz's
speech was downright sinister with the exact type of pablum and apologia that you would expect
in the wake of a horrible gun disaster at a speech for an organization that just wants more guns in
more places. Trump's speech was even worse, and one of the most vile stunts that I've ever seen
at any event is Trump quite literally did a Gong Show. Trump decided to read the names of
the victims of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting, many of them very difficult for Trump to pronounce. Of
course, any stunt based on Trump reading names is risky. We know what happened when he tried to read
Indian the names of Indian people in India. Very bad idea. And they ring a gong after each one.
Look, look at this sick political stunt. Speaker 4: Of silence as I read the
names of these beautiful people, all young, wonderful lives ahead of them,
their brave teachers whose lives were destroyed by an out of control lunatic. So we'll start.
Speaker 1: Look at this. Speaker 4: Alexandria. Rubio.
Speaker 1: I thought the gong was a joke. At first I thought it was somehow
added as a joke in the feed. Speaker 4: Alethea Ramirez
has. Amiri Garza. Anibal Guadalupe Rodriguez. Hi.
Eliana Cruz Torres has. Ellie Garcia. Speaker 1:
Jaclyn Cazares I'm not even going to subject you to the entire thing,
but this is I mean, it's, it's sinister the way that this is being used. And what it reminded me
of is there's this very controversial thing that has happened historically in the Mormon Church,
where after certain non-Mormons die, the Mormon Church will baptize them posthumously
into the Church of Latter Day Saints against their will. These are people
who had no interest in being part of the Mormon Church. And it's sort of like this.
They're part of us. They're being posthumously thrown into the cult after their deaths. This
is sort of like a version of that. It's it's too putu to pull these victims in into the political
cult of the NRA, of Guns, of Trumpism or whatever. It didn't get any better. As the speech continued,
Trump talked about hardening schools, which is now the thing that they're talking about.
He ultimately called for teachers to be armed. He also made up the term virtue cycling.
Trump clearly wanting to read the term virtue signaling. I guess he's not familiar with it,
and he incorrectly reads off the teleprompter, which Obama was evil for using. Remember,
Obama used the prompter and correctly read off of it and it was bad. Trump has a prompter. Messes it
up constantly. Never an issue. And listen to this. Speaker 4:
How many more tragedies will it take until they agree to
set aside their far left political agenda and do what is really needed and what actually works?
This is not about virtue signaling and assigning. This is about blaming your enemies. No,
we don't want to do that. This is about saving our children's lives. Yes, that's what we want to do.
Surely we can all agree our schools should not be the softest target. Our schools should be the
single hardest target in our country now. Speaker 1:
It's hard to believe anybody believes this at this point. Why?
Speaker 4: As part of a comprehensive school safety plan, it's time to
finally allow highly trained teachers to safely and discretely concealed carry.
Speaker 1: And we've talked before. Almost no teachers actually want to do that. And of course,
it brings the added complexity that if there is a shooter, police show up and they can't, they'll
now there's multiple people with guns shooting. You think the police are going to first stop and
ask questions? Excuse me, who's the good guy with the gun here? So we only shoot the bad guy with
the gun. Makes it possible for imagine a student to even overpower teachers and take the firearms.
It's absolutely and completely bonkers. At another point, Trump brought up a guy who I guess
shot a shooter in a church, shot this guy, shot someone dead at some point. And the guy talks
about how Trump is actually still his president. Speaker 2: Thank each and every one of you
again. Thank you, President Trump. And you're still my president.
Yeah. Speaker 1: So as you can see, there
is this overlap between the MAGA cult and this. This is a pastor. So it's like there's there's an
overlap, a Venn diagram of Christian nationalists, the MAGA election cult and the gun NRA's people.
I mean, that's very loud applause for a supposedly nonpartisan organization that's just about gun
rights to something that's insane. You're still my president. Just does it doesn't make any sense.
And then lastly, Trump capping off the speech with dancing on the stage as music played.
He seemed to only do it a little bit. Probably even Trump realizing this might look bad
if we have the second worst mass shooting in the last 11 years since Sandy Hook or ten years.
And then I speak at a pro-gun event, talk about how great guns are. We certainly don't
need to restrict them. And then I dance after mispronouncing a number of the names of the
victims. It doesn't look particularly good. And maybe Trump realizing that it's a totally depraved
and sick country. And I have never received so many emails from people around the world with two
main emotions but fear and just being horrified by what's happening in the United States,
but being simultaneously perplexed, like, what the hell is going on? There's another shooting. An 18
year old had assault rifles with 1600 rounds of ammunition and there's another shooting.
And Republicans say give more guns to teachers. And Trump shows up at the NRA and he dances like
it simultaneously. Being horrified and being perplexed at what's going on. And I what can I
say to that? They're completely right that this is only happening here. The in this entire package,
this configuration of this cult and the availability of guns and the existence of
a party like the Republican Party, it's only happening here and it's absolutely horrifying