Credit: Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore
Former Vice President Joe Biden is moving ever closer to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, as he recently picked up wins in a handful of additional states to extend his lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Despite losing early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former vice president had strong showings elsewhere, all while taking a more focused aim at the Second Amendment.
Recently, he used expletives to insult Second Amendment supporters headed to the polls in Detroit, Mich. When asked about why he was trying to rescind Second Amendment rights, Biden told the man, “You’re full off s---.” A Biden spokesman doubled down on this rhetoric by tweeting, “Remember that it’s not only Donald Trump who’s terrified of a Biden presidency. It’s the NRA, who Joe Biden has beaten twice - to ban assault weapons and pass the Brady Bill.”
Just a week earlier, Joe Biden tapped failed presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke to “take care of the gun problem” with him. It wasn’t long ago that O’Rourke was making headlines for proclaiming, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.” O’Rourke’s numbers dipped following this debate and he exited the race just over a month later.
Biden decided he wasn’t done there, though. He also recently hired O’Rourke’s former campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, to the same position. It should come as no surprise that, like O’Rourke, she is no friend of our right to keep and bear arms. Following a tragedy in Texas that took eight lives (including the murderer), she tweeted, “GET EVERYONE OF THOSE GODD--- GUNS OFF OUR STREETS.”
The former vice president also picked up endorsements from anti-gun politicians and special-interest groups alike. This includes support from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made attacking the Second Amendment the cornerstone of his failed campaign. Biden also secured endorsements from the bulk of all other previous presidential hopefuls, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and, most recently, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).
Biden also received the backing of the Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety, the Brady Campaign and former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.).
As this was being written, however, Sanders had still not conceded the race. That being said, Sanders has also made it clear throughout his decades in public office that he is an anti-gun opportunist who will cave to the demands of his partisan, anti-Second Amendment base.
Whoever the nominee ultimately is, both leading candidates have the Second Amendment in their sights; but what’s most troubling is that the former vice president seems to be taking a more focused aim on the Second Amendment as his campaign progresses towards the nomination in July.
