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Facepalm: MSNBC Trashes Rick Scott For Ignoring Student Protestors; He Was At A Funeral For One Of the Victims

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  February 21, 2018 8:37 PM

They trotted out a would-be school shooter to push gun control. They said buying cold medicine is harder than buying an assault rifle. They even thought you could put a chainsaw bayonet on an AR-15. So, it’s par for the course when they mess up on reporting about gun politics. They still don’t know the difference between semiautomatic and automatic weapons. Now, they’re going off half-cocked covering these student protests in Tallahassee. 

Protesters wanted to meet with Gov. Rick Scott, who wasn’t in his office. Obviously, he doesn’t have time to meet with these kids, or at least that’s what MSNBC’s Ali Velshi reported:

Katy Tur, who interviewed the would-be school shooter, went even further, saying Scott was “refusing to speak” with the students.  Oh, the outrage, folks, except Rick Scott a) agreed to meet with the protester as 5 P.M.; and b) was unable to speak with them when the cameras were rolling because he was at the funeral for one of the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. 


Via Free Beacon [emphasis mine]:

MSNBC host Katy Tur said Wednesday that Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R.) was "refusing to speak" with students crowded outside his office calling for gun control, before reporting minutes later that Scott's absence was due to his attending a Parkland shooting victim's funeral.

[…]

They flooded the governor's office, and the governor is refusing to speak with these students," Tur said. "These are students from across Florida. They're students from Parkland … The survivors. It sounds like they're not being heard."

The woman with glasses Tur referred to, who had a "Guns Off Campus" sticker, then asked the students what they'd tell Scott if he was there. Tur apologized to viewers and said it appeared the woman was part of the student group, not a member of Scott's office.

Tur repeated some of the students' suggestions for Scott, such as "do your job" and "make a difference."

"They're asking the governor to do something about rifles, to do something about assault weapons, to stop looking into immigration so much, and to focus on what is the issue that they're there to talk about: weapons. Their lives," Tur said.

Six minutes later, Tur said Scott's office had called MSNBC to tell them he would be meeting with small groups of Parkland students for 20 minutes each at 5 p.m.

"Right now, he is not in the office. He is at the funeral, I believe, for a student," Tur said. "That's why he cannot meet with those kids right now.

Oh, it wasn’t just Republicans getting flak. State Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, was trolled on social media for not being present for the failed vote to ban AR-15 rifles, which was put forward without notice. He later blasted his Democratic colleague in the legislature for playing procedural games. As a result, he missed the vote because he too was attending the funeral of Peter Wang, the JROTC student who sacrificed his life trying to get his classmates to safety. He was posthumously given an honorary acceptance into West Point for his acts of valor (via Tampa Bay Times):

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Moskowitz was one of five Democrats recorded as not voting on the motion. He was attending the funeral service for Peter Wang, one of the victims of last week's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Moskowitz is a 1999 graduate of Stoneman Douglas and the school is in his district.

In a Times/Herald interview on Wednesday, Moskowitz said: "I didn't expect the Democratic leadership to expose one of their own members while I was at a funeral paying respects."

He also issued a statement.

“The decision to make a procedural motion to bring HB 219 to the floor was brought up with zero notice.  The majority of Democratic members of our caucus were not aware that any motion would be made and several were not present on the floor. 

“I was in my district attending Peter Wang’s funeral. Peter was a hero. He held the door open so other students could survive and it cost him his life. I know in my heart I was where I needed to be yesterday. Paying my respects to a hero.

Still, Moskowitz caught heat for missing a vote that everyone knew was going to go down in flames:

Yeah, talk about going off the rails--and who attacks anyone for going to a funeral for the victims?