I would do anything, anything to protect my five grandchildren,
including as a last resort, shooting them if I had to,
to protect the lives of my grandchildren.
>> You heard that correctly.
That was Arizona Congresswoman Debbie Lesko who just said that
she would shoot her own grandchildren to keep them safe.
So, she was on the House floor resisting literally the most benign gun control
legislation you can imagine.
The same gun control legislation that was approved in the Senate with the help of
Republican lawmakers.
So, as you can imagine, super benign, but Debbie Lesko is fired
up about red flag laws that would prevent people with severe mental
health issues from purchasing weapons that can kill the rest of us.
I'll get to that in just a moment.
But first, it's interesting that when she responded to the backlash to
her statement, she didn't just simply say, my God, I misspoke,
which watching that I thought it happens.
Sometimes when you're speaking off the cuff on this show, I'll misspeak,
I'll say something without realizing I said the wrong thing, right?
But she didn't clarify that.
She says via Twitter,
it never ceases to amaze me the lengths gun control zealots will go!
Zealots is a fascinating word in this context.
They turned my speech about protecting Second Amendment rights and
my right to protect my grandchildren from violent criminals into a claim,
I would harm my own grandchildren.
Absolutely ridiculous!
So Cenk, before I go to you, I just wanna play that cold open again.
Let's play it one more time.
And let's listen carefully because maybe we misunderstood what she was saying.
>> I have five grandchildren, I would do anything,
anything to protect my five grandchildren including as a last resort shooting them,
if I had to, to protect the lives of my grandchildren.
You seem pretty clear, including as a last resort.
I think she said what she said.
>> Yeah.
So look, I don't know if she meant it or if it was a slip up,
but there's a couple of things that are very relevant in this story.
Number one, in the old days everybody would have known that that was a slip up,
that she didn't want to actually shoot her own grandchildren, cuz that's nuts.
These days, at a minimum we're not sure.
>> Not sure.
>> And so that tells you all you need to know about the current
state of the Republican Party.
Where we think that's a very realistic possibility.
Now, then she made it worse with her explanation.
Like, wait, if you misspoke, why don't you just say you misspoke?
>> Because maybe she didn't misspeak.
>> Yeah.
And so, that's so weird.
>> We love using our guns.
We love it, under any circumstance,
even under the false premise that we're protecting others, we love it.
I think it's very likely that she meant it.
Like, I would have immediately gone on Twitter and said, my God,
I totally misspoke, didn't realize I said that at the time, obviously I didn't mean,
that's not what she said.
>> Yeah, and by the way, you could be over the top with that too.
You could be like, look at these unbelievable zealots,
obviously, I meant protect them and shoot the criminal and
look at how they're purposely misinterpreting a gaffe or slip up, right?
And everybody would let it go.
She slipped up, right?
We would never do that story.
We'd be like, slipping up on air, we've done that 1,000 times, right?
But she doesn't say that it's a slip up.
>> Nope.
>> And so didn't, I don't know the Right wing mind, it's a scary, scary place.
>> It really is.
>> But is there some chance that they, I mean, remember these are the same folks
that said in Vietnam, we had to burn down the village to save the village.
So do they think that that's like some sort of Masada moment or something?
Where like, hey, the criminals are in the house and their fantasies.
And there's 20 of them because you're so important and they busted in and
the only way to save your grandchildren is to murder them, maybe, I don't know.
>> I don't know, I don't know what she, like,
I would have liked a little more clarity.
Like, if you're gonna double down then double down.
What is this half measure, right?
Where you're just going after the people who just wanna ensure that we do what we
can legislatively to prevent bad people from getting their hands on guns so
easily.
But she has a problem with that.
>> Yeah, and by the way, if you were just saying, I would shoot criminals who were
going to kill my grandchildren, we would agree with you.
>> Right. >> We would agree with you.
That's not a controversial statement, Right?
So what is wrong with you?
Well, a lot of things, including what she's about to say in this next clip,
I went into the rest of her speech and she is just insane.
So let's watch.
Democrat bills that we've heard this week wanna take away my right,
my right to protect my grandchildren.
They wanna take away the rights of law abiding citizens to protect their
own children and grandchildren and wives and brothers and sisters.
This bill takes away due process from law abiding citizens.
Can you imagine if you had a disgruntled ex or
somebody who hates you cuz of your political views and
they go to a judge and say, this person is dangerous.
And that judge would take away your guns,
lean on the side of conservatism, take away the guns.
Without that person even having a knowledge that there was a court hearing
that would take away their guns.
This is wrong.
>> So, that's not how red flag laws work.
I'm sure anyone paying attention already knows that.
And she referred to the legislation as Democrat legislation,
which is a funny way of referring to it.
Because, it passed in the Senate, 64 to 30, I'm sorry, 64 to 34.
Remember there's only 50 Democratic senators.
So this means that not only did they clear the legislative filibuster by getting
ten Republicans to vote in favor of it,
they cleared the filibuster by getting 14 Republicans to vote for it.
What does that mean Cenk?
That means that the legislation is what, strong?
>> No, it's the weakest legislation you could possibly imagine.
>> Super weak.
In fact, it doesn't implement federal red flag laws, it doesn't.
Right wingers need to make up their minds, okay?
Because on one hand, after this disgusting creep,
Robert Cremo opened fire in highland park Illinois, I kept hearing
from all these right wingers, like, why didn't anybody report him?
He was in plain sight talking about what he was gonna do,
why didn't anybody report him?
Why didn't anyone report?
How did he get his hands on those guns?
Especially since cops showed up to his house on two different occasions.
One time because he was gonna commit suicide the other time because he was
threatening to kill everyone in the house with the weapons he had in his room.
Why did they sell him guns?
Yeah, why did they sell him guns?
Seems like you want red flag laws, right?
But then when there's a process to formalize it through legislation,
which is what you would need for it to work, they freak out about it.
They freak out about it.
Because their NRA buddies, their weapons manufacturer buddies,
tell them to sit down, know your role.
You need to continue advocating for the loosest gun laws imaginable so
we can all be terrorized by mass shootings on literally a daily basis.
That's really what's going on.
But let's talk about what the legislation indicates in regard to red flag laws.
No federal red flag law would be implemented.
It's just providing funding for some of the states,
particularly blue states, let's keep it real,
that are trying to get red flag laws up and running cuz you need funding for that.
You need to streamline the process.
Lawmakers in the Senate agreed to allow states access to federal funds either to
implement red flag laws or
support what Senator Cornyn described as, crisis intervention programs.
Including programs related to mental health courts, drug courts and
veterans courts.
You know what happens in courts?
You need to prove your case.
You don't just go in there and say, yo, I don't like this person,
can you take their guns away?
That's not how it works.
And she knows it.
Current law, by the way, she mentioned an abusive ex, right?
There is a provision in the legislation that deals
with a loophole in regard to abusive partners.
Current law only bars domestic abusers who have been married to or
lived with the victim or have had a child with them from buying a firearm.
Now lawmakers expanded the definition to include a current or recent former dating
relationship with the victim, though the change cannot be applied retroactively.
So again, super weak, because it won't be applied retroactively.
If you're super abusive in the near past, the law wouldn't affect you.
But it closes the boyfriend loophole to ensure that abusive
guys don't get their hands on these guns.
So look, first of all, Republicans live in the post truth world, so
she doesn't care that what she's saying is not true or legal, and
neither do our voters, they would rather be lied to.
And their emotions, take my guns, which leads to the second point.
It is indisputable that for Republicans taking away guns from the mentally
ill who have threatened people's lives is a worse crime than those
people committing a massacre where dozens of people are shot or killed.
That's just a fact.
Because you say, look, if we do the red flag laws nationwide, yes, we will take
away the guns of some mentally ill folks, who said, I'm going to kill people, right?
But in return, we would stop a great number of massacres.
And they go, no, we would rather have the massacres.
Fact, that is an indisputable fact.
Every Republican politician just said, I will not do a national red flag law.
No, it's more important that the mentally ill who are dangerous and
say they will murder people have access to guns.
It's more important.
So that's the state of the Republican Party.
>> Yeah. >> They've lost their goddamn minds.
The massacres are not accidents.
She's speaking after the massacre.
>> Yeah.
>> She's saying, I'd rather have the mentally have,
and you have an ex boyfriend or an ex husband that's threatened to murder you.
That has a gun, that talks about murdering.
No, his Second Amendment rights are more important than you getting murdered.
>> And which one is it?
Because every time there's a mass shooting,
the right wing wants to deflect to avoid talking about gun legislation and
instead they wanna focus on mental health issues in the country.
Okay, so you want to continue allowing people with severe mental health issues
that could lead to them using a lethal weapon to kill a mass group of people.
You wanna allow that system to continue.
So why do you pretend like you're concerned about the mental health aspect
of this?
They're not, they've never been concerned about the mental health aspect of this.
Every other country has individuals with mental health issues, every other country.
The United States stands out because we're the ones who raise our hands and say,
we wanna give them guns, easy access to whatever guns,
whatever high capacity magazines they want.
Why not?
>> Yeah, Ana, I just figured out as we're doing the story,
part of the reason they don't want guns taken away from the mentally
ill is because they might be mentally ill.
I'm not kidding.
I mean, you see the Lauren Boebert Christmas card where she's arming
everyone in the family, including tiny little kids.
You see this Lesko saying, I might murder my grandchildren to save them.
And then the founder of Dilbert, the guy who writes that comic strip.
>> Scott Adam.
>> Scott Adams, thank you.
Just yesterday he did a Twitter thread where he's like,
if you've got a son in a tough situation, you're only like this,
your only two solutions are let him die or murder him yourself.
And he's huge in the right.
They think that, that's, he's awesome.
Look, we have a celebrity on our side.
And he says, and he insists absolutely, those are your only two options,
if your son is going through a drug problem or they're 14 to 19 years old,
as he explained, and you can't get them under control.
He thinks murdering your own son is a super legitimate option.
So of course he doesn't want his gun taken away,
just in case he wants to murder his son.
>> Pro-life, super pro-life.
>> This is a pro-life family, I mean party.
No, guys, we live in a country where one side has lost its goddamn mind.
It is super scary times.