By Lee Williams
The Biden-Harris administration has more than 70 staffers working on its social media and external communications, yet they have proven completely incapable of delivering a single message that the American people will believe and support. That’s apparently why they turned to Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey to sell their gun control package to the American people.
The vaunted White House press briefing room, where news of wars declared and wars ended has first been broken to the American people, was the setting Tuesday afternoon for what may be one of McConaughey’s most memorable performances.
Wearing an open-collar white shirt and bespoke black blazer, McConaughey, 52, told the American people of the need for “responsible gun ownership,” which he said includes expanded background checks and much more – all taken from Joe Biden’s gun-control plan.
“We need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21. We need a waiting period for those rifles. We need red flag laws and consequences for those who abuse them,” McConaughey told the White House press corps, who sat completely silent which the actor read from a script.
McConaughey, who is from Uvalde, Texas – the scene of the most recent mass murder that claimed the lives of 19 children and two heroic teachers – said he immediately drove to his hometown with his family once he learned of the carnage. He met with victims’ families, consoled them during their grief and promised he would make sure their loved ones did not die in vain.
“We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before. A window where it seems like real change, real change can happen,” he said.
McConaughey’s flawless delivery of prepared remarks wooed even the allegedly conservative FOX News, which described his call for additional firearm restrictions as an “emotional plea,” and a “smart move by the White House.”
Takeaways
At a 2018 March for Our Lives event, McConaughey called for a complete ban of modern sporting rifles, which he called “assault weapons.” He has been very vocal in his calls for additional gun control and is a powerful anti-gun advocate. So, the news actors at FOX aren’t the only ones who believe it was a “smart move by the White House” to bring in a fresh – in this case a well-tanned – face to help sell gun control to the skeptical American people.
Certainly, neither Biden nor his latest press secretary are up to the task. Biden struggles to read from a teleprompter without a gaffe, and Karine Jean-Pierre can’t answer a single question without reciting it from a voluminous briefing book.
During McConaughey’s presentation, it became clear the White House could not have picked a better messenger. However, it is a message that hasn’t changed. While there is little doubt of McConaughey’s sincerity, his calls for expanded background checks, infringing on the Second Amendment rights of 18-20-year-olds, waiting periods and national red flag laws might as well have been delivered by Biden himself. He has been advocating for these unpopular for decades.
It’s clear that the Biden-Harris administration is using the Uvalde mass murder as a cudgel for even more Second Amendment limits. After all, that’s what they do. But the unprecedented use of an award-winning actor shows how desperate they have become, and how little the public is buying what they’re selling. The polls show no one trusts them, and even fewer think they’re doing a credible job.
As he finished his remarks, McConaughey quickly turned and began to walk off the stage – exactly as we have seen Biden do time and time again. An unknown member of the White House press corps shouted one question at him: “Were you grandstanding up there, sir?”
I really wish McConaughey would have answered the question.
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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
