Paper Corrects Endorsement Of Candidate Over Anti-Gun Remarks

Tedra Cobb, the Democratic Congressional candidate for New York District 21, got caught on camera saying she supported an “assault weapon ban.” She said she couldn’t campaign on it because she’d get her butt handed to her, but Cobb still said she supports it.

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Now, Cobb had to get a newspaper endorsement “corrected” because it said that she supported such a ban.

In its Monday endorsement, the Times Union promoted Cobb’s apparent support of a ban as part of the reason for endorsing her.

“On gun rights, she favors universal background checks, including on gun show sales and private transactions, enacting ‘red flag’ laws that would allow courts to take guns away from people exhibiting dangerous behavior, and reimposing an assault weapons ban while addressing criticisms about inconsistencies and loopholes in the last one,” the paper originally wrote, according to a cached copy of the editorial.

The campaign disavowed the endorsement’s description of Cobb’s position on an assault weapons ban.

“She did not explicitly say she supported an assault weapons ban,” Brian Phillips Jr., Cobb campaign spokesperson, told the Press-Republican, despite what Cobb said in the video.

“Tedra explained the inconsistencies and unanticipated consequences that arose from the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban,” Phillips told the paper. “It did not work.”

In response, the Times Union issued a correction for their endorsement.

“Correction: An earlier version of this editorial stated that Tedra Cobb favors reimposing an assault weapons ban. She says she wants to address gun violence through widely supported gun control measures but not repeat the errors of the previous federal ban,” the correction reads.

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So how did this happen?

That’s a good question. Many newspapers sit down with candidates to discuss issues prior to giving endorsements. I find it difficult to believe that one video from months ago triggered the paper to believe that Cobb supported an assault weapon ban.

Instead, I find it far more likely that she admitted the same thing again to the friendly audience of newspaper editors and asked that they not mention it. They forgot, included it in their endorsement, and created embarrassment for Cobb. She may well have also explained issues with the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban, but I somehow suspect her issues with that law were far different from mine.

After all, many on the anti-gun side argue that the law didn’t work because it wasn’t comprehensive enough.

Either way, I find it fascinating that the very same candidate who was caught on film saying she wanted an assault weapon ban had something like this happen. After all, we already know how Cobb feels on the issue of gun rights. She’s not a supporter of the Second Amendment, no matter how her campaign tries to spin it. I can’t help but feel that somehow, this is yet another example of Cobb being caught saying what she really believes rather than the sanitized version she presents to the public.

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The truth is Cobb is as anti-gun as any Democrat you’ll find. That much is clear based on her own words in the past. If anything, this newspaper endorsement should serve as a reminder for Second Amendment supporters in that district that Cobb doesn’t care about your sacred and protected constitutional rights.

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