Ellison: LaPierre Using Fear Because ‘He Doesn’t Want to Talk About the Blood That Is Spilled All Over His Hands’

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Representative and DNC Deputy Chair Keith Ellison (D-MN) reacted to NRA Executive Vice President CEO Wayne LaPierre listing him in a group of politicians that has a “Socialist agenda” and saying the Democratic Party is “infested with saboteurs” by stating LaPierre is using scare tactics to avoid talking about gun deaths and “the blood that is spilled all over his hands because of the lax policies that he’s pushing.”

Ellison said, “Well, he’s trying to use fear to manipulate people, but, look, you know, the last thing he wants to talk about is the 17 dead students in Parkland, the 20 dead children and seven more dead teachers at Sandy Hook. He doesn’t want to talk about the fact that since the Assault Weapons Ban left in 2004, we’ve seen a 239% increase in gun-related deaths. He doesn’t want to talk about the blood that is spilled all over his hands because of the lax policies that he’s pushing. He wants to make people afraid, and he wants to tell people lies and distortions, rather than deal with the fact that he is essentially trafficking in fear in order to line the pockets of his clients in the gun manufacturing industry. It’s really horrendous. And yet, you know, we’ve got to challenge him. We’ve got to confront him. But we’ve got to keep the focus on the families, Wolf. Because he wants to get this into a tennis match between, he calls me a name, I call him a name. No, this is about the families, and that is where we’re going to keep our focus.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett