"Face the Nation" on April 23, 2023
Interview
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Good morning.
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Well, to me it says several things. And one of those was mentioned just a moment ago by Vice President Pence in the interview. I think that actually it is this culture of fear and paranoia that's drummed up by some, including politicians like the former vice president, who mention it almost in a way as if it's an excuse for this type of action.
This was in the safest neighborhood of Kansas City, or one of our safest neighbors, and this was a man, who in his statement to the police said, I was scared of this, in essence, large, black person outside of his door. He thought the child was six feet tall. He's only 5'8". He thought he was a threat. He was on the other side of two locked doors.
This is the sort of thing that happens when you have this culture of paranoia and fear that's being drummed up by politicians and some in the media and, of course, this fettization (ph), I said before, of guns. More stand your ground laws, more laws that say you should use your gun and have it absolutely everywhere.
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It absolutely does not complicate anything when the president gets involved. First of all, this was a - a news story, an incident, a situation that had the attention of the country long before President Biden called and actually did the juts humane thing and gave best wishes to a boy who had just been shot twice. This is a 16-year-old in the Midwest who had been shot twice. He gets a call from the president of the United States, which I think is a nice thing.
But, really, if you think about all the conversation, there was not a conversation I had certainly in this city but with any mayors around the country who weren't noticing this story. The racial dynamic, the fact of these laws that are extreme are, frankly, arming our citizens and having them more scared, I think, than they've ever been before. This was an 84- year-old man who went to sleep in one of the safest neighborhoods of Kansas City but still had a loaded gun. And when he heard a disturbance at his door, the first thing he thought to do wasn't just to brandish it, wasn't even to say a word or scream at somebody who would be outside, it was to shoot and to shoot twice.
The facts of this case were astonishing in and of themselves. And had the president never said a word, there would still be lots of attention. I strongly disagree with the governor, and particularly when his party often has politicized any number of incidents relating to border crossings and beyond in places like Missouri, far away from our southern border, to use any number of political examples. I think that this is a serious situation and the real politization are the people, who after each one of these incidents -
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Say, oh, let's blame it on mental health, let's blame it on society. It's tragic right now.
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Right.
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Well, we beg, we pray and we plead with them. These - these are Missourians who are - are shot, right? This is not some sort of thing where the city is just an evil place far, far away. We are within this state. But you're seeing not just in Missouri, we've had this set up for a while in Kansas City. Right now there's an effort to take over state control of police. And in St. Louis you saw a lawsuit filed by the NAACP on Friday night in Jackson, Mississippi, relating to that issue where there's this state takeover.
The cities are now punching bags. They have been for a while, but you're seeing this new extreme of everything that happens here, even our crime, isn't something that we need to fix for the state. Instead, it's an indictment, let's say, on the city people themselves. I think it has lots to do with racial differences that are present in the city, our different views on gun crimes, and, frankly, it's something that can scare people a little bit more than perhaps talking about international affairs or deficits.
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Instead, it's something that seems to be down the street and it is harming and tearing apart our country.
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I know our police department has worked hard to review this situation. And while there are critiques, certainly we welcome those and further study.
I think the challenge with a hate crimes charge is just the proof of intent that relates to it. What we do have is that there was a man who said that he was afraid of a black male outside of his door, he shot twice. The felony assault charge carries life in prison, which for an 84-year-old is a substantial, potential sentence. There's an additional armed criminal action charge. But I believe that our federal investigators and so many others will look into this to see if there are further charges.
I think what a lot of people, though, wanted to see over the last week is that this was taken seriously.
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It was astonishing to some that someone who could shoot someone twice was then back in their bed later that night. I know that we have worked hard to try to address that, but we'll answer more questions as time goes along with this tragic situation.
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You know, both can be true, but I don't think that's the situation now. I mean think about the fact that - and you hear certain political figures who talk about cities that are fundamentally safer than actual cities in their own state.
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Often this is kind of the Governor DeSantis bashing of New York City, which is much safer than a lot of the largest cities in the state of Florida.
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I think this is, in many ways, fully drummed up and it's part of getting people more guns, getting them more afraid.
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And I don't think it in any way relates to the data on the ground each day.
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I know our police department has worked hard to review this situation. And while there are critiques, certainly we welcome those and further study.
I think the challenge with a hate crimes charge is just the proof of intent that relates to it. What we do have is that there was a man who said that he was afraid of a black male outside of his door, he shot twice. The felony assault charge carries life in prison, which for an 84-year-old is a substantial, potential sentence. There's an additional armed criminal action charge. But I believe that our federal investigators and so many others will look into this to see if there are further charges.
I think what a lot of people, though, wanted to see over the last week is that this was taken seriously.
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It was astonishing to some that someone who could shoot someone twice was then back in their bed later that night. I know that we have worked hard to try to address that, but we'll answer more questions as time goes along with this tragic situation.
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You know, both can be true, but I don't think that's the situation now. I mean think about the fact that - and you hear certain political figures who talk about cities that are fundamentally safer than actual cities in their own state.
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Often this is kind of the Governor DeSantis bashing of New York City, which is much safer than a lot of the largest cities in the state of Florida.
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I think this is, in many ways, fully drummed up and it's part of getting people more guns, getting them more afraid.
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And I don't think it in any way relates to the data on the ground each day.
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