REPUBLICAN COMMENTATORS AND politicians have been lining up to pour scorn on Barack Obama, in the wake of the US President’s emotional announcement on gun control.
Speaking at the White House earlier, Obama became emotional as he remembered the 20 schoolchildren gunned down in Newtown, Connecticut three years ago.
“Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” the President said, as he welled up.
The limited measures are aimed at tackling rampant gun violence in the US by making it harder to buy and sell weapons.
Republican White House hopefuls like Marco Rubio and Ben Carson have been taking to the airwaves to criticise the announcement – while some of the harshest criticism came from Fox News hosts Andrea Tantaros and Meghan McCain.
His comment about gun violence in Chicago in particular drew the ire of Tantaros, who co-hosts the Outnumbered programme on the conservative news channel.
“He’s almost at the end of his term, and you haven’t seen him go to Chicago and speak out about this issue, and he is uniquely poised to do so really.
Everything he’s doing won’t solve the problem. So I would check that podium for, like, a raw onion, or some No More Tears. I mean… It’s not really believable… ‘And the award goes to…’
Co-host Meghan McCain – a daughter of Senator and former GOP White House candidate John McCain – said Obama’s Chicago remark “didn’t seem horribly authentic”.
“Maybe it is, I don’t know him at all.
But, I agree with you there’s so much more to be done. Again – if you care so much, go to your home town of Chicago instead of talking about God-fearing Americans who just want to protect themselves when Isis is coming into their home town and shooting up 14 people.
(For the record, Obama visited Chicago at the end of October. Gun violence was the main topic of his speech to a conference of law enforcement officials).
Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan said Obama’s announcement amounted to a “form of intimidation that undermines liberty”.
Plenty of people have also been taking to Twitter to criticise the President’s ‘fake’ and ‘crocodile’ tears.
Humourist John Hodgman evidently agrees:
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