background checks for
purchasing a firearm are important ban
on assault weapons and high-capacity
magazines
community policing and programs that
keep neighborhoods safe and keep folks
out of trouble these efforts work they
save
lives guns are not the problem here the
gun laws that we pass the gun control
kind of things that the president wants
to do are only going to impact
law-abiding citizens
criminals don't pay attention to those
laws we have a lack of prosecution
and we've declared war on the police and
that is backfiring on those who have
done it
a little bit of reaction out of the
president's crime prevention program
announced just a short time ago at the
white house want to bring in our panel
now
ben dominic publisher of the federalist
harold ford jr former tennessee
congressman
and trey gowdy former congressman from
south carolina and ceo of empowerment
and inclusion
capital and gentlemen nice to see you
all tonight trey you heard the president
a bit earlier today will this
make a difference let's begin there
well bill what i found stunning was uh
hearing joe biden say that when gun
prosecutions
actually were way down under president
obama with what
with joe biden is the vice president so
yeah i mean keeping guns out of the
hands of people who are criminally
inclined is a great idea which is why we
already have laws that control
who can have weapons what kinds of
weapons you can have and where you can
have them
but those laws do no good if they're not
enforced and prosecutions were down
under the obama biden administration
harold how did you see it today when the
target was all about
guns look i think that the gun issue
trey thanks for having me on first up i
think trey is
is is right in a huge way we have to
prosecute
uh laws that are on the books but to
prosecute those who violate gun laws on
the books
but i think we got to go a little
further i think we've got to take an
assessment of what's working and what's
not working
and you have to wonder how can these
kids these gang members in chicago
where we've really focused a lot on over
the last several weeks
who can't seem to find fresh fruit a
good book
a dental office visit in their
neighborhood but somehow another can
find
hands find their hands on guns unable to
commit all these awful crimes i think
we ought to think about ways in which to
learn who owned these guns before where
were these guns manufactured not to
limit anyone's second amendment rights
but to make sure that we're helping
police officers and moms and dads and
grandparents and communities across the
country
who for the life of me are also
wondering how do all these guns
flood into these neighborhoods and
communities where we largely have black
kids and brown kids and
oftentimes poor kids with very few
opportunities
i think the focus has to be as much
there as it is on
prosecuting the laws that we have on the
books today when we're looking at crime
in america carjackings rapes
auto theft arson it's all up and so many
of these big cities and
ben the president was criticized
immediately after that for
for not having much vigor or enthusiasm
in his delivery how did you rate that
well first off i will say that i think
that the president should probably
stop trying to quote america's founding
generation
he once again garbled another uh quote
he's done this repeatedly
if i have to pick between thomas
jefferson and joe biden i think you know
which side i'm going to be on but when
it comes to
this gun issue and the way that he's
putting it forward
look we're talking about a white house
that within the last 24 hours has
engaged on both
crime in big cities and on the border
sending kamala harris
to there as we'll be discussing in a
minute in a way that i think
is a signal about the message that
they're receiving
from internal political polls and
indications
about the direction that hispanic voters
in particular
are taking in this country hispanic
voters particularly the middle class
hispanic voters across the country
are not down with this agenda that the
democratic party is pushing
they are not down with their agenda when
it comes to the border when it comes to
policing
when it comes to schools when it comes
to critical race theory when it comes to
any of these other aspects
and i think that this is really kind of
a desperate attempt
to hedge against what many democrats
feel
is going to be a wave election in this
midterm
that sweeps republicans into power in
the congress and i think that
unfortunately
joe biden and kamala harris are not
going to be
the kinds of messengers who are going to
change the minds
of a lot of different voters across this
country who do not see
what they like what they would like to
see from inner city politicians from
urban politicians
who they do not feel are representing
their best interests we may say that
player
may see that play out over the next year
and a half and how that goes
meanwhile earlier today in america news
newsroom we spoke with police in new
york and california and michigan
and trey the one theme they all came
back to
was the morale of the police officers in
these big cities
have a listen to some of this right here
now
when you vilify police to such an extent
police feel like you're in a darn if you
do a darn if you don't
environment and i know most police
officers including myself
we got up to save lives not have our
hands tied and watch people become
victimized
there's no fear out there the police
departments unfortunately can't do their
jobs like they used to don't want to do
their jobs like they used to do them and
that's unfortunate this situation so
it's great you want to get guns off the
street
how are you doing law enforcement
prosecutors district attorneys
legislators
and most importantly the communities we
serve we need to work together to get
these uh the guns off the street
and and that starts with funding the
police so trey what would you say about
the message today from the president as
it goes to the men and women in blue
well i would have liked to have heard
more i mean look here's the reality
and unlike joe biden i've actually
prosecuted cops uh
get rid of all the bad ones punish them
to the fullest extent of the law and
then appreciate the other 99
but for a year i mean we had a hard time
distinguishing between arsonists and
cops you got the vice president
bonding people out who are accused of
crimes and now joe biden is talking
about getting tough on crime
look it's a lot easier when you just
stay tough on crime
don't decide you're going to do it this
summer stay tough on violent crime
because no other right matters if you're
dead i don't care about your right to
free speech
it ain't going to do you much good if
you're dead a week away from the first
of july gentlemen stand by here in a
moment