Norah O'Donnell barely contained her contempt for NRA president David Keene during an interview on Thursday's CBS This Morning.
O'Donnell confronted Keene over a new ad that ripped President Obama's
support of gun control and referenced the armed Secret Service
protection for Sasha and Malia Obama: "The NRA put out this ad in which
you mentioned the President's kids....Why is it not off-bounds to use the President's kids or anybody's kids in a political ad?"
Keene tried to explain the intent behind the ad, but the anchor
interrupted him mid-answer. The outrage in her voice was unmistakable
[audio available here; video below]:
DAVID KEENE: The ad was not about the President's kids. The ad was about the fact that the President's children-
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let me stop you right there, David, because I
looked at the ad again this morning. I read through the transcript. You
actually mentioned the President's kids three times! Three times!
KEENE:
Of course, we did, and we also had pictures of a number of other
people, including David Gregory and others who send their children to
schools that have protection, and derive the idea that average citizen's
children should be protected. That was our point. Our point is
not about the President's kids. It's not about his kids – it's about
everybody else's kids. We think that one of the most important things we
can do is provide security to the children of America, and we don't think that's an inappropriate message.
Despite all of the attention on the NRA ad, O'Donnell didn't once bring
up how President Obama surrounded himself with schoolchildren during
his Thursday press conference on gun control. She also failed to mention
a new online video game that lets users simulate assassinating Keene.
The CBS anchor came out of the gate with her slant earlier in the segment: "We
have a new CBS News/New York Times poll out this morning that shows 85
percent of NRA households support background checks on all gun buyers.
Are you out of touch with your own membership?"
Co-anchor Charlie Rose also set the slanted tone of the interview in
his lead question: "Did anything that happened in Newtown change
anything about the NRA, or will your efforts simply be to resist, resist, resist?"
Rose and O'Donnell have regularly ganged up on conservative/Republican
guests on the CBS morning newscast. On November 14, 2012, the two
anchors pummeled Senator John McCain
over his opposition to Susan Rice as a potential replacement for
Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Almost three weeks before that,
they badgered former RNC head Haley Barbour on then-Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's strong pro-life stance.
The two CBS journalists even ganged up on former Obama chief of staff/current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel on December 18, 2012, hitting him from the left on the gun control issue.
But neither raised the issue of the Windy City's high murder rate, and
what that might say about that Democratic stronghold's strict gun
control regulations.
The full transcript of the David Keene interview on Thursday's CBS This Morning:
CHARLIE ROSE: Also in Washington this morning is David Keene, president of the national rifle association. Good morning, David.
DAVID KEENE, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: Pleasure to be with you.
[CBS News Graphic: "Firing Back: NRA President On Obama's Gun Control Proposals"]
ROSE: Did anything that happened in Newtown change anything about the NRA, or will your efforts simply be to resist, resist, resist?
KEENE: Well, we're very interested in – in answering the question of how do we make schools safer for our children. As you know, from the very beginning after this happened, we've argued that we need two things: one, we need to get at the root of the problem, which is the broken – and devastatingly broken mental health care system we have in this country, because most of these people – all of them, in fact, are people with severe mental problems. Secondly, we need to provide security, because we can never predict how one of these people is going to act.
Most of the proposals that have to do with firearms are simply feel-good proposals that have been tried in the past and won't work, or won't have any real impact. The real question that needs to be addressed is not, what we do about guns? It's, what do we do to make our children safe?
[CBS News Graphic: "Gun Laws Should Be...: More Strict, 58%; Remain same, 35%; Less strict, 5%; Margin of Error: +/- 4% Pts.; Source: AP-GfK Poll"]
NORAH O'DONNELL: All right. David, we have a new CBS News/New York Times poll out this morning that shows 85 percent of NRA households support background checks on all gun buyers-
KEENE: We-
O'DONNELL: Are you out of touch with your own membership?
[CBS News Graphic: "Background Checks On All Gun Buyers: Among NRA Households: Favor, 85%; Oppose, 13%; Margin of Error: +/- 3% Pts.; Source: CBS News/The New York Times Poll"]
KEENE: Not at all. We actually are polling our members as well right now, as well as other gun owners and Second Amendment supporters. You know, the NRA has been one of the biggest supporters of the so-called NICS system, which provides background checks. In the past, when they were talking about checks at – at gun shows, most guns sold at gun shows do involve a background check, because they're sold by licensed dealers. But we've-
O'DONNELL: But forty percent of guns are – are from private – sales, so would you support, in fact-
KEENE: And most of those are not at gun shows, but let me make my point: at the gun shows, we suggested to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms some years ago, if they want everybody that makes an exchange there checked, all they have to do is provide a booth and do it. They said, no, we weren't interested in that. We weren't going to fund it-
O'DONNELL: So David-
KEENE: The difficulty comes in, when you're talking about you and me as next-door neighbors, and you buy a new shotgun and want to sell one to me. How do you enforce a background check on that? We want to see the proposal. But as a general– as a general proposition, the NRA has – has been very supportive of doing background checks on – on purchasers through the instant system; and secondly, of adding the potentially violently mentally ill to the database, which most states and the federal government have, up to now, not done-
O'DONNELL: David, on the eve of the President-
KEENE: The President now says he'll do that, and that's good.
O'DONNELL: Dave, on the eve of the President announcing these new gun proposals, the NRA put out this ad in which you mentioned the President's kids. David – Jay Carney, rather, the White House press secretary, called your ad 'repugnant and cowardly'. Why is it not off-bounds to use the President's kids or anybody's kids in a political ad?
KEENE: The ad – well, the – the ad was not about the President's kids. The ad was about the fact that the President's children-
O'DONNELL: Let me stop you right there, David, because I looked at the ad again this morning. I read through the transcript. You actually mentioned the President's kids three times!
KEENE: Of course, we did-
O'DONNELL: Three times!
KEENE: Of course, we did, and we also had pictures of – of a number of other people, including David Gregory and others who send their children to schools that have protection, and derive the idea that average citizen's children should be protected. That was our point. Our point is not about the President's kids. It's not about his kids – it's about everybody else's kids. We think that one of the most important things we can do is provide security to the children of America, and we don't think that's an inappropriate message.
ROSE: David Keene, thank you very much.
— Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
