Levin Report: Tennessee Congressman Clinches Title for Most F–ked-Up Response to Covenant School Shooting

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Hours after three children and three adults were murdered at the Covenant School in Tennessee on Monday, Republican congressman Tim Burchett beat out all his conservative peers to win the award for the most callous, f–ked-up response to the mass shooting, the 38th since the start of this month. Note: This award isn’t actually real and there’s no medal or monetary sum to be collected for coming in first, making Burchett’s response all the more insane.

Speaking to reporters, outside the Capitol, Burchett said that what had happened was “a horrible, horrible situation”—and then declared: “we’re not going to fix it.” (Emphasis ours.) To be clear, the lawmaker wasn’t saying this to underscore the collective frustration and feelings of rage millions of Americans feel for politicians who continue to allow these types of “situation[s]” to occur, offer “thoughts and prayers,” and then refuse to pass meaningful gun control legislation; he was saying “we’re not going to fix it” because he thinks that’s correct course of action. “Criminals are going to be criminals,” he continued, adding: “And my daddy fought in the Second World War, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me, he said, ‘Buddy,’ he said, ‘if somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.’”

Incredibly, he went on: Asked if he thinks “there’s any role for Congress to play in reaction [to Covenant School shooting],” Burchett doubled down, saying: “I don’t see any real role that we could do other than mess things up honestly because of the situation…I don’t think our criminals are going to stop from [getting] guns, you know you can print them out on the computer now, 3D printing…I don’t think you’re going to stop the gun violence. I think you’ve got to change people’s hearts. As a Christian as we talk about in the church, I’ve said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country.”

So, just a couple questions/comments:

(1) What utopian state is Burchett worried about “mess[ing]” up when the world we are currently living in is one in which people have legitimate fears that their children could be shot and killed at school?

(2) In fact, there is a role people—specifically Burchett and his law-making colleagues!—can play. And he’d be playing his role by doing the same thing other countries—where this sort of thing does not happen on a regular basis—have done.

Anyway, just as soon as Burchett had twice claimed there is literally nothing that can or should be done to prevent kids from dying in the classroom, he did think of one thing: Homeschool your kid.

Incidentally, if you hadn’t guessed it already, the congressman is all about government actions when it comes to very dangerous things like men wearing dresses:

Trump’s campaign issues mafia-style warning to anyone thinking of working for Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis has not yet announced his 2024 candidacy for the White House but one person very much acting like the Florida governor is already his competition is Donald Trump. Over the last several months, the ex-president has: claimed DeSantis tearfully begged him for an endorsement in 2018; declared the governor would be working at “a Pizza Hut” if it wasn’t for him; called DeSantis “A WHEELCHAIR OVER THE CLIFF KIND OF GUY”; implied DeSantis groomed teen girls while working as a high school teacher; and, reportedly, spent a good chunk of his time coming up with derogatory nicknames about his would-be rival, including one that seemingly takes aim at both DeSantis’s height and genitals. And now, the Trump campaign has apparently issued a mafioso-style warning to anyone even entertaining the idea of working for the governor.

RealClearPolitics reports that Team Trump has put the word out that anyone who has worked for DeSantis in recent days, or plans to in the future, whether in his Florida office or on his presidential campaign, will be “persona non grata” should they later try to gain employment with Trump. “It’s a time for choosing,” a source close to the ex-president told the outlet. “If you work for Ron DeSantis’s presidential race, you will not work for the Trump campaign or in the Trump White House.” While this level of pettiness is nothing new for Trump, who as president, regularly fired people via Twitter, publicly trashed former employees, and demanded undying loyalty above all else, it’s obviously not a great way to run a campaign or a presidential administration.

“It’s the American people who will ultimately decide who is the next president and many grassroots see through these desperate pleas for allegiance and instead wish there was a substantive debate about the future of our great country,” a conservative grassroots organizer told RealClearPolitics. “If Trump wins, he’ll need to hire the very best people he can,” said Mick Mulvaney, who served as Trump’s third (but not final!) chief of staff. “Whoever is advising him to exclude folks who support other Republicans in a primary doesn’t have a clue as to how to run a government.”

During his rally in Waco, Texas, over the weekend—which was panned even by the gang at *Fox & Friends—*Trump repeated his claim that DeSantis would have been consigned to the scrap heap of political history were it not for the then president’s endorsement, telling the crowd he took pity on the guy when he showed up “with tears in his eyes, [and] had almost nothing in the polls.” (After the rally, he told reporters if not for him, the Florida governor would “probably [be] working at a cigar store or a law firm.”) During an interview with Sean Hannity this week, Trump, for at least the third time, insisted that DeSantis wept before him.

On Monday, a new poll from the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard and the Harris gave the ex-president a 26-point lead over DeSantis. On the other hand, citing polls out of Iowa and New Hampshire, Axios noted Sunday that “DeSantis is performing better in the early states where voters pay closer attention.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the modern Republican Party

Elsewhere!

Prosecutors: Bankman-Fried bribed Chinese officials in 2021 (Politico)

“I’ll Walk Away From Anything”: Kara Swisher Calls the Shots (VF)

Federal Judge Shoots Down Mike Pence’s Spineless Attempt to Dodge the Grand Jury Investigating Trump (VF)

Activist group led by Ginni Thomas received nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations (The Washington Post)

What damage can an AR-15 do to a human body? A rare look. (The Washington Post)

Dominion wants Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and other Fox hosts and execs to take the stand at trial (CNN)

Could Marjorie Taylor Greene Actually Wind Up in the Senate? (Intelligencer)

What’s Hot on TikTok? Defending Its CEO (NYT)

Greenland to stay in daylight saving time forever (AP)

Grimes Has Changed Her and Elon Musk’s Baby’s Name to a Question Mark (Jezebel)

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