Rachel Maddow dismantled Donald Trump’s response to the Texas mass shooting on Monday night, specifically targeting the president’s comments that it was mental health, not guns, that led to the massacre in a Sutherland Springs church.
Maddow outlined the vast disconnected between Trump’s post-shooting rhetoric and the actions he’s taken so far during his presidency.
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Rachel #Maddow Takes A Sledge Hammer To Trump’s Hypocrisy On Mental Health Issues pic.twitter.com/tXDwo8zdD9
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— Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) November 7, 2017
Maddow dismantled Trump:
If the president did believe that the mental health of the killer was the issue here, then somebody should probably ask the president why one of the very first things he signed as president – the first meaningful thing he signed as president – was a change in regulation specifically and only to make it easier for people who’ve been adjudicated mentally ill to obtain firearms. If the president believes that there’s no gun problem here – the only issue here is a mentally ill person obtaining and then misusing a gun – well, this president took overt action as soon as he became president to make it easier for mentally ill people to get guns.Â
As Maddow noted, a quick examination of Trump’s actual record as president shows that his response to the shooting was a complete and total scam meant to distract Americans from the real issue of gun violence.
His post-inauguration move to relax gun laws for mentally unstable individuals is proof of that, yes, but so too is his ongoing effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act – a law that has expanded access to affordable mental health treatment.
So, no, Trump doesn’t care about addressing mental health issues any more than he does about curbing gun violence or learning how many countries are in the world. What he is passionate about – and actually good at – is changing the subject.
Trump’s newfound, phony interest in mental health issues quickly disintegrates after two minutes of scrutiny. It’s just another distraction the American people shouldn’t fall for.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
