Media protect Obama, rush to accuse NRA of murder

“SLAUGHTER HOUSE: The Senate votes in favor of continued mass killings,” blared a New York Daily News headline published the morning after Congress’ upper chamber shot down four separate gun control proposals.

“NRA won victory over common sense Monday as Senate defeated bills to curb gun sales to those on no-fly list,” the front-page added.

The Orlando gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, called 911 during his rampage and repeatedly pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State.

The shooting inspired lawmakers to push for stricter gun control measures, including legislation to block the sale of firearms to people who appear on the federal government’s so-called terror watch list.

Opponents of the proposal, including the NRA and several congressional Republicans, argued the legislation could violate the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which requires “due process of law,” and says no one can be held to answer for a crime “unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury.”

Democratic lawmakers responded angrily to this pushback, with a few going so far as to accuse Republicans of arming Islamic State terrorists.

“We’ve got to make this clear, constant case that Republicans have decided to sell weapons to ISIS,” Sen. Chris Murphy told the Washington Post.

“That’s what they’ve decided to do. ISIS has decided that the assault weapon is the new airplane, and Republicans, in refusing to close the terror gap, refusing to pass bans on assault weapons, are allowing these weapons to get in the hands of potential lone-wolf attackers,” he added.

On Monday, all four gun control amendments were voted down in the Senate, prompting many politicos and members of the press to signal they agreed with Murphy’s assertion that Republican lawmakers and the NRA have blood on their hands.

“Did your senator vote down gun control today and thus continue their support for domestic terrorism?” freelance journalist Matthews Keys asked in tweet that included a list of the senate roll call.

National Journal correspondent and supposed centrist Ron Fournier, whose standard approach to any given issue is to blame “both sides,” said on social media, “Guns don’t kill people. The gun lobby does.”

“The U.S. CoNRAgress,” he added.

MTV News’ Jamil Smith opined, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction: they’re in Congress, holding up gun reforms.”

“Defeating these Republicans, especially on a gun-control platform, also means defeating the National Rifle Association,” he wrote. “I’m past questioning the integrity of those members of Congress who do nothing about guns. … You’d think that people who want to stay in power would wake up to realize that American voters are warming to gun restrictions. Certainly, a liberal alliance that could effectively combat the NRA is needed to push legislation, but we have work to do first in November if there’s any hope to get that legislation passed.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who voted against legislation designed to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, echoed her Democratic colleague from Connecticut and accused the GOP of arming Islamic State terrorists.

Chris Murphy “said it right,” she said on social media. “The [Senate Republicans] have decided to sell weapons to ISIS.”

The rush to blame the GOP and the NRA for recent mass shootings comes just days after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., shocked the press by accusing Obama of being “directly responsible” for the tragedy in Orlando.

“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures, utter failures by pulling everybody out of Iraq thinking that conflicts just end just because we leave. So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies,” the senator told a small group of reporters last week.

Asked for clarification, McCain said, “Directly responsible because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America, it’s a matter of record. So he’s directly responsible.”

Reporters and pundits reacted immediately, composing angry denunciations and condemning the senator for crossing the line.

Fournier, who said this week that the “gun lobby kills,” suggested McCain sounded like presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump.

MTV’s Jamil Smith, whose article this week referred to congressional lawmakers as “weapons of mass destruction,” said McCain sounded, “like an idiot blaming Obama’s policies for Orlando.”

The biggest newsrooms in the country rushed to report on the senator’s comments, as the Associated Press, the Huffington Post, the Hill, the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, ABC News, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and Fox News each had their own write-up of the story ready within minutes of McCain uttering the words.

The media pile on for the senator continued, and it was furious.

“How could Donald Trump have possibly become the nominee of the Republican Party?” Slate’s Jamelle Bouie asked sarcastically.

The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui added in a similarly sarcastic note, “Makes you wonder how Trump ever happened!”

Ars Technica editor Andrew Cunningham said simply, “F—k this.”

“Time to retire, Mac,” said Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks.

The Atlantic’s Christopher Orr added, “Desperate McCain calls President Obama ‘directly responsible’ for Orlando shooting. Despicable.”

Not long after McCain’s remarks bounced around the nation’s largest newsrooms, drawing loud boos and condemnation from members of the press, the senator walked back his comments, and claimed he “misspoke” when he blamed the president for Orlando.

In contrast, neither Warren nor Murphy have backed off from claiming the GOP is selling weapons to the Islamic State.

And none of the media personalities listed in the above have had anything to say this week about the two Democratic senator accusing Republican lawmakers of conspiring with the NRA to arm ISIS agents.