Dem's Bash NRA's Election Spending, Ignore Anti-Gun Campaign Cash

Democrats bashed the NRA for its election spending during last night’s debate, but were strangely silent about the spending habits of Michael Bloomberg, the anti-gun billionaire who’s pledged to spend $500-million in the 2020 elections, more than 10-times the amount the NRA spent in 2016.

Advertisement

Even when the NRA wasn’t being used as a bogeyman, Democrats found other voices on the right (or even in libertarian circles) to bash instead.

Gov. Steve Bullock, who hadn’t qualified for the first debate in June, railed against lobbying efforts in his home state of Montana and praised his government’s ability to limit corporate spending.

“You can make changes, even in Montana with a two-thirds Republican legislature,” Bullock said. “Even we stopped the Koch brothers from spending at that time. If we can kick the Koch brothers out of Montana, we can do it in DC, we can do it everywhere.”

The Democrats have problems with the Koch Brothers and the NRA, but progressive billionaires like Bloomberg and the groups he funds like Everytown for Gun Safety can spend as much as they want without a hint of criticism. After all, in the 2018 elections gun control groups outspent the NRA but that was a non-issue on the Democrat debate stage. Why is it an issue for the NRA to spend $10-million but fine for gun control groups to spend $11-million?  It’s almost like they’re not trying to get “big money” out of politics, but are trying to get your money out of politics instead.

It was actually Marianne Williamson who came closest to pointing out the hypocrisy when she pointed out that every other candidate on stage had taken plenty of corporate dollars.

Marianne Williamson lashed out not only against the NRA but also at candidates who have taken donations from a variety of corporations.

“For politicians, including my fellow candidates who themselves have taken tens of thousands and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars from these same corporate donors, to think that they now have the moral authority to say ‘we’re going to take them on,’ I don’t think the Democratic Party should be surprised that so many Americans believe ‘yada yada yada,’” she said.

Advertisement

Even then, Williamson had to get in her digs at election spending in support of the 2nd Amendment before pivoting to attack her fellow candidates. And not even the High Priestess of Politics could bring herself to call out the gun control movement’s sugar daddy.

We’ll see if the ten candidates on stage tonight are as blatantly hypocritical as their rivals were on Tuesday evening. I’d love to see the CNN moderators bring up the fact that gun control groups spent more than the NRA in 2018, and ask if that big money needs to get out of politics too. Unfortunately, I’m betting that Michael Bloomberg, Everytown, Giffords, and the other big spenders in the gun control movement will all get a pass from moderators and candidates alike when and if the issue of money in politics comes up in this evening’s debate.

Watch the latest from Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co:

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement