OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden has issued a warning to those who support gun rights and it is one many are taking seriously. In a speech on Wednesday, the president said that is going to get a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines “come hell or high water,” Fox News reported.
“I know it may make some of you uncomfortable, but that little state above me, Delaware is one of them, has the highest rate, one of the highest rates of gun ownership. But guess what? We’re going to ban assault weapons again come hell or high water and high-capacity magazines. When we did it last time to reduce mass deaths,” he said at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
The president went on to other issues, including taxes, as he spoke to the audience.
“Nobody, including the people who make a very good salary, for example, thinks the tax system is fair. Go ask anybody. Ask your friends or acquaintances — they’re making 2-, 3-, 4-, or 500,000 bucks a year, “Is it fair?” They don’t think it’s fair!” he said.
“For example, when this administration started, there were a little under — a little over 600 billionaires in America. Now there are about 1,000 of them. They should be paying a higher tax rate than a schoolteacher, a police officer, or someone who works as a nurse. It’s about 3 percent they’re paying,” the president said.
“And, by the way, the reason we’re able to do all we did and still reduce the debt 1.7 billion dollars — trillion dollars is a simple proposition. There were those five hu- — there were five hundred and, I guess, thirty-five or fifty companies that made over half a billion bucks here in the Fortune 500. And guess what? They paid zero in federal taxes. And we did an awful thing. We said you’re going to have to pay 15 percent. God forgive me. Fifteen percent,” he said.
“But every co- — fif- — a minimum 15 percent. And that was enough to do what we’ve done so far and still reduce the debt. There’s so much more to do, though. We need to come together on police reform and immigration reform.
“We need to protect — we need to protect voting rights and the right to choose,” he said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we got to reinstate Roe v. Wade and pass it nationally. (Applause.) We really do.
“And, look, I know as well as you, the MAGA Republicans are not going to get onboard for most of these things, but that leaves a lot of Republicans that are still left,” he said as the audience laughed.
And his laughter got even more abhorrent when he spoke about a mom whose kids died of fentanyl overdoses.
Biden landed in hot water again on Wednesday during a meeting with the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference when critics accused him of making light of a mother who lost two sons to fentanyl overdoses as he made fun of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
During a House hearing on the southern border crisis, the Georgia Republican blamed the Biden administration for its inability to prevent the influx of illegal drugs into the United States. She made her remarks before Rebecca Kiessling testified about the loss of her two sons on July 29, 2020, due to fentanyl poisoning. The Detroit News reported that the two had ingested pills they believed were Percocet but instead contained fentanyl.
“This government has failed you, and it’s failing American families, and it’s failing, most of all, it’s failing our children and our young people,” Greene said during the Tuesday hearing.
“Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her son’s murders because of the Biden administrations refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartel’s from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese fentanyl,” Greene wrote on Twitter after the hearing in a post containing a video of Kiessling’s testimony.
Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her son’s murders because of the Biden administrations refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartel’s from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese fentanyl. pic.twitter.com/HRD5SX0Td8
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 28, 2023
While discussing Greene’s comments and the loss of Kiessling’s sons, Biden let out a laugh.
“Isn’t [Marjorie Taylor Greene] amazing? Oof,” Biden said as he chuckled. “I should digress, probably, I’ve read, she, she was very specific recently, saying that a mom, a poor mother who lost two kids to fentanyl, that, that I killed her sons. Well, the interesting thing is that fentanyl they took came during the last administration,” Biden said while chuckling.
It’s not clear that Biden was laughing at the mother’s loss, it should be said. Also, he is correct in that those deaths occurred in 2020, during then-President Donald Trump’s term.
