White House counselor Kellyanne Conway blasted renewed criticism about politicians’ failure to enact stricter gun controls in the wake of the Texas church shooting, saying it’s “disrespectful to the dead.”
Conway was responding to a question on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on Monday about tweets by comedian and TV personality Chelsea Handler in the wake of the Sunday shooting at a Sutherland Springs Baptist church that killed 26 people, half of them children.
“Innocent people go to church on Sunday to honor their God and ... get shot [and] killed,” Handler tweeted. “What country? America. Why? Republicans.” She also complained that the “government watches these mass shootings and does nothing.”
Conway said she was “sorry that we even have to show her Twitter comments” and called them “so beyond any type of reasonable response that anyone should have.” She complained: “People are taking to Twitter in the comfort of their very luxurious lives, pointing fingers.”
In a dig at Handler and apparently others clamoring for increased gun controls, Conway said that the “rush to judgment, particularly by people who just see politics and Trump derangement in every single thing they do, it doesn’t help the victims, and it’s disrespectful to the dead.”
Conway said she was “very happy President Trump is our commander in chief and our leader ... because, unfortunately, every president has to help heal the nation at different times, different tragedies.”
Dismissing gun control concerns as “politicizing” the deadly attack at the Texas church appeared to be a GOP talking point Monday. When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was asked by a reporter about gun control during an appearance in Sutherland Springs on Monday, he responded that it was “unfortunate” that the media was “politicizing” the killings.
“We don’t need politics right now,” Cruz said in a CNN video of his appearance. “In New York, we saw a terror attack with a truck. Evil is evil, and will use the weaponry that is available.”
“You know, it is an unfortunate thing that the immediate place the media goes after any tragedy, after any murder, is politicizing it. We don’t need politics right now. You know, I would note in New York we saw a terror attack just this week with a truck. Evil is evil is evil, and will use the weaponry that is available.”
Donald Trump said on Monday that the church attack wasn’t a “guns situation but a “mental health problem at the highest level.”
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the shooting was evidence that more church members should arm themselves for protection. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
