Keith Olbermann Issues Special Comment On Arizona Shooting: 'Violence Has No Place In Democracy'

In the wake of Saturday's tragic shootings in Arizona, which have claimed the lives of six individuals and left many more, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, critically injured, Keith Olbermann delivered an important message about the place of violence within our democracy.

Appearing on a special edition of "Countdown," Olbermann told his audience that "we need to put the guns down. Just as importantly we need to put the gun metaphors away and permanently."

Olbermann continued, "Left, right, middle - politicians and citizens - sane and insane. This morning in Arizona, this age in which this country would accept "targeting" of political opponents and putting bullseyes over their faces and of the dangerous blurring between political rallies and gun shows, ended."

He concluded his special comment with this powerful statement, including an apology for his own actions: "Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our Democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or any thing in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence. Because for whatever else each of us may be, we all are Americans."

WATCH:

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Read the full transcript here.

Comments

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

12:19 PM on 02/08/2011

I love you my Silver Fox. Now can you please start a news site. Arianna just sold us all out for cash... like everyone else is doing in this country.

[yankhadenuf]

02:17 PM on 01/22/2011

Truth sets Keith Olbermann free, he is let go by MSNBC. No worries, KeithO, truth ALWAYS prevails! We forever appreciate and are eternally grateful, more than we can aptly express, that you stuck your neck out for over 300 million of us Americans so that we could HEAR out loud what we were thinking and suspecting about what is wrong and proving what is right. We know you were editorializing, however the facts were always on your side, and therefore raised the American public's awareness more than anytime since Edward R. Murrow, your hero.

[Charl]

02:24 PM on 01/13/2011

So Ellinwood Jesse Kely's representative says they do not see the connection between Kelly's rifle-range fundraiser against Gabby Giffords and the crazy that went and shot her, they are pathetically and willfully blind, as is Sarah Palin, for using the imagery and rhetoric that the whole slew of them did. Where is the expression of regret for possibly having contributed to this?

Nope... seems it's not gonna happen... (crickets chirping).... they instead throw barbs at those that don't agree with their violent hate-speech. Let's see if they at very least stop the mad-talk. Time will tell...

[dsmith1209]

11:38 AM on 01/13/2011

Bravo! Finally someone is willing to take a stand on violence and democracy! ALL comentators, political parties and Radio/TV/media agents should take this oath! GOD Bless America! URGE Everyone to Stand up and be counted on this video! Thank you, Keith Olbermann

[PaulBNoe]

06:41 PM on 01/12/2011

When will we have gun control in this country? No "right to bear arms" is worth the life of Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl shot and killed in Tucson shootings.

The Christian right should read the Bible. Nothing is as important as LIFE and the world lost a truly great person when it lost Christina. The gunman was probably a very, very sick person. There will always be sick people. Having guns available to sick and disturbed people violates everyone's rights by putting all our children's lives at risk.

Just because the "right to bear arms" is in the Constitution is meaningless. So was the statement that Blacks were "three-fifths" of a person and women could not vote. Amend the Constitution! Lawmakers need to make gun control a priority so they can safely do their job and maybe another parent will avoid such a tragic loss.

[Sunfun54]

12:13 PM on 01/12/2011

Skeptical.

[denden5559]

12:47 AM on 01/12/2011

I think he should change it from the Worst Person in the World to the Most Unnecessary Things of the Day....

[FlameOnH8]

11:18 PM on 01/11/2011

@RIConservative:
Sorry you're the one who is pathetic. I never blamed the right for the incident. You're just projecting and using a straw man because you don't have any real answer. Look at how angry YOU are, stomping you're feet and continuing to make things up with your straw men. Again, I never blamed the right, that's something YOU made up in your delusional mind. LOL... YOU are the one who is truly pathetic. And try staying on topic instead of constantly changing it when you don't have a real answer.

[tenilla]

10:22 PM on 01/11/2011

You can order a bumper sticker that says "Psalm 109:8" at patriotshop.us.

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

A nice sentiment?

Maybe not.

The psalm reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with “1/20/09” commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.

But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1116/biblical-anti-obama-slogan-use-of-psalm-1098-funny-or-sinister

[BlackWidowPilot]

12:39 PM on 01/12/2011

"May his days be few; may another seize his goods!

May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow!

May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit!"

May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!"

The whole passage runs on like this, a curse upon the those who would turn against King David and speak ill of him and his rule;

"For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death."

Funny how such self-professed "Christians" cannot even distinguish between the Old Testament and the New, nor comprehend the Scriptures *in**context* but will grasp at any passage to serve their transparently authoritarian *political* agenda.

Christian is as Christian does; "...by their fruits will ye know them."

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

PROTESTant

[Alfern Webb]

07:21 PM on 01/13/2011

As always on point.

[RVU]

10:17 PM on 01/11/2011

I have yet to see anyone who comes even close to belching out as much ha te as Olbermann does. There is a difference between what liberals call ha te speech and actual ha te speech.

No, it is not hate speech when someone disagrees with you and you don't know how to argue your point.

Hate speech is when you say you hope Cheney dies soon as Olbermann wished when the VP got sick.

There is no need to look at the fairness doctrine. If people were willing to listen to liberal talk radio then there would be a market for it and it would exist, but as it is there are very few people who want to listen to the liberal views and agenda.

You really don't think that it's asinine for the government to subsidize a political platform and transmit it out to the masses?

[Sunfun54]

12:18 PM on 01/12/2011

Can you please post a link where Olbermann says he hopes "Cheney dies soon"? Thank you.

[tenilla]

09:59 PM on 01/11/2011

The Bottom Line is in America You are Free to Hate:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/01/11/f-vp-macdonald.html

Someone here posted today that it has been proven (by Beck or Limbaugh no doubt) that Loujghner is a liberal. Find me one liberal who reads Ayn Rand.

As recently as June, Loughner protested that having to take a class that he had a flunked
was a violation of his constitutional rights. As recently as less than a week ago, the
House of Representatives in a wink-wink pandering to the all-powerful Tea Party read the
parts of the Constitution to us that they chose to be appropriate. I am not saying there is
a connection. The Tea Party/Birther posters here don't listen to the BBC and did not have
to hear the BBC ridicule our government for reading the constitution last week.

[The Ravenette]

09:25 PM on 01/11/2011

I bet more people read that this guy says here than actually watch his show on BSNBC.

[drummer 40]

09:30 PM on 01/11/2011

This comment was filmed before a live ostrich.

"HA!"

[FlameOnH8]

11:17 PM on 01/11/2011

Family Guy reference?

[Charl]

02:31 PM on 01/13/2011

Instead of posting something like that, why not actually take to heart what he said and stop the sniping?

[AlPeoplesEverywhere]

09:19 PM on 01/11/2011

You tell them Keith! Art transcendent religion, politics, and boundaries, Artists need to stand up and scream at these freaks to stop with the push of fear. Stop doing art that is counter productive to All life on this Planet.

Al Peoples Everywhere - 2011
remember... YOU ARE A.P.E.

[eldorado81]

08:57 PM on 01/11/2011

The Pima County Sheriff and Keith are the only two people I've heard the past 72 hours that have made any sense.While I agree that both sides are to blame for heated rhetoric the left doesn't even come close to the hate that the right spews out on a daily basis.Fox News,24 hour talk radio,the tea party,politicians like Jan Brewer,Sarah Palin,and Sharon Angle(and I thought women were more non-violent of the species) are all guilty to me of this climate of hate.Rush Limbaugh said on day one he hoped our president would fail.Who speaks of distrust of governmennt and who targets Democrats constantly?How could someone like Laughner not be influenced?I hope this brings about change but from the vitriol I've heard from these hate mongers these past two days I doubt it.

[tenilla]

09:11 PM on 01/11/2011

Bill Maher was great on Anderson Cooper last night. He addressed the false equivalency that is being promulgated even by the mainstream media. He said that Muslims and the Republican party
both need more moderates -- and that there are probably more moderate Muslims.

[Tkevan]

08:40 PM on 01/11/2011

"Our moderators censor these comments before they are published" (if we disagree with them, of course).