John Daniel Davidson of the Federalist places a recent hubbub involving Joe Biden into a larger context.
Set aside Joe Biden’s weirdly aggressive response to the Detroit auto plant worker who challenged him on gun control policy at a campaign stop yesterday—Biden tells the guy, “you’re full of sh-t,” calls him a “horse’s ass,” and later threatens to slap him in the face—and consider instead how the blue-check media exulted in it.
Instead of noting how Biden distorted his record, or that he was factually wrong on almost every particular about guns, pundits and reporters focused on the optics, on how great it was that Biden stood up to a random voter who dared to question him. …
… Biden … told the Detroit man the government “would take your AR-14s” (no such gun exists), and that AR-15s are “machine guns” (nope) that are “illegal” (they aren’t). After this string of false statements, Biden then blurts out, without context, “Do you need 100 rounds? Do you need 100 rounds?!”
By contrast, the auto plant worker’s remark that triggered the exchange was a straightforward statement of fact: “You are actively trying to diminish our Second Amendment rights and take away our guns.” Any plain reading of Biden’s proposed gun control policies—like banning AR-15s, the most popular gun in America—is consistent with that statement.
What’s more, the man accurately references comments Biden made at rally on March 2 while accepting the endorsement of Beto O’Rourke. Biden said, “I’m going to guarantee this is not the last you’ve seen of this guy,” referring to O’Rourke. “You’re going to take care of the gun problem with me. You’re going to be the one who leads this effort.”
How else can one interpret that except as an endorsement of gun confiscation? After all, it was O’Rourke who in a September debate boasted, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”