A Fox News panel covering a standoff in Philadelphia between police and an armed shooter became outraged that 2020 Democratic presidential candidates would dare to talk about gun control as the stalemate continued and after six of the city’s police officers were shot.
“This all goes back, not to guns in my opinion,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said, just hours after a massive gunfight where a still-unknown shooter fired a reported 100-plus rounds from a long gun at numerous Philadelphia police officers, wounding a half-dozen of them. “This is about narcotics,” he claimed instead, because the police had been serving a narcotics warrant when the incident began.
“To blame this on guns, like this guy with the AR — the handgun, didn’t go through a background check,” Watters continued. “It’s crazy. And I think everyone needs to focus on what the real issue here is.”
Picking up where Watters left off, fellow Fox News host Dan Bongino vented his anger at 2020 Democrats who didn’t subscribe to the panel’s way of thinking. “Can I just throw a tip out there for the presidential candidates?” he began. “Maybe shut your pie holes — I’m serious, let the cops on the ground get this guy, this maniac, out of the building, and let’s get the cops out of the hospital before we start tweeting about our next brilliant gun control plan.”
A Philadelphia police spokesperson confirmed that all six of the wounded police officers had been released from the hospital not long after Bongino’s remarks.
Watters then played a clip of California Senator and former Attorney General Kamala Harris on CNN, reacting to the news of the Philadelphia gunfight and standoff. “It’s nonstop, right?” she said. “Part of my focus is smart gun safety laws, recognize that we have to have more enforcement around gun dealers.”
This comment incensed former NYPD Commissioner and convicted felon Bernard Kerik. “You know when she did that, I sent out a tweet,” he said. “They don’t care about those cops. It’s all about politics for her and the other Democrats. The bottom line is, that’s reckless, it’s irresponsible, shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t happen in the future, but it will continue to happen because that is all they care about.”
Then, Watters teed up a clip of New Jersey Senator and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker on MSNBC explicitly praising police and pointing out that they face the greatest risks from a society awash in easy-to-acquire, high-capacity firearms. “Some of the most courageous officers when I was a mayor, run into buildings where they have no situational awareness, encounter weapons that have no business being on our streets,” Booker explained. “Often the voices you hear, calling for the kind of gun safety laws that I have put forward in my very bold plan, are police officers wanting it to happen, because their lives are getting increasingly dangerous.”
Watter’s response? No attempts to fact-check or address Booker’s argument, just pure deflection.
“Yeah, Dan, I don’t know about that,” Watters said, smirking. “But I know this, whenever there is a terrorist attack in his country, [the Left] say ‘Hey, hey, pump the brakes. Don’t say anything. Don’t rush to judgment. Let the facts come in. We don’t know what motivated this, who was involved in this.’ But as people are being taken to the hospital, they are already pushing a political agenda here, and making all sorts of wild assumptions.”
Watters did not clarify if he was referring to Muslim extremist or white supremacist terrorist attacks in his remarks.
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
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