crackdown, diplomacy, ussical violence.

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hello and welcome to press tv spot, i'm marsia hashimi, thanks so much for being with us, well in a country which was founded on violence and one where currently there are more guns than people, it should not be a surprise that once again the united states has witnessed political violence, for us president donald trump was shot in the ear during assassination attempt, this is a country where almost 10% of the presidents.

have been assassinated, even more attempted assassinations, but why? well stay with us as we look at all of this and what it means on the spotlight. i'd like to welcome my guests to the program. out of rochester, new york, david k. johnson, investigative journalist, author and founder of dcr report.org. out of hampa, florida, neil mccape, conservative political commentator and national political reporter for redstate.com. thank you both for being with me. i like to start this off uh with david in rochester. um, let's look a statement made by us president joe biden regarding the assassination at tip. he said that there's there's not a place for this kind of violence in america. your thoughts about the statement and and what exactly does it mean when in the us, i mean there are at least 44 thousand american. that are killed

every year by guns? well, i think the number killed is 24,00, not 44,00, and that's homocides. um, well homic, killed by guns means homicides. so all together, but go ahead, yeah, but not all homicides are by gun, not all suicides are by gun, but these are by gun, sorry to interrupt you, i just want to be exact buse, it's really important as a journalist, when i was researching this, it was considered homicides and suicides by gun, but but go ahead, okay, without a question, there is way too much gun violence in the world, there is modern mature economy in the world, no democracy in the world anywhere near the level of the united states when it comes to gun violence and and it is the goal of uh uh donald trump and many of his supporters that there be no rules whatsoever about carrying guns. um, the the second amendment of the american constitution doesn't refer to guns, it refers to arms and i have written in the past that if you want

to be an absolutist about the second amendment uh we now have nuclear weapons that will fit in a backpack and i want a personal nuclear weapon because nobody will mess with me if i'm carrying one around uh clearly we have a problem in the us. with people having weapons like the one used in attempt to kill donald trump that are intended to be military weapons used on the field of battle don't belong in the civilian arena, but in america you can walk into a restaurant, a movie theater, department store, and see people carrying not just guns on their hips, but assault rifles slung over their shoulder. yeah, that's pretty frightening. well, neil, i mean, let's talk about... in general, because would you say that the united states is just in general very violent society? i mean, we remember even the violence that took place, let's say on january 6, 2021, do you think that americans in general uh seem to feel that by taking up guns, i mean it's more

of an american tradition, david just talked about the second amendment and and the roots may lie there, but i mean your overall assessment, well i think uh... "humans are violent people, and in america people are free to be humans and there are less controls that that we see in other countries, and the founding fathers and for the last 250 plus years, we've basically made the decision that we would rather have freedom than too much government control, and i i want to remind you that the american revolution started at lexington and conquered because king george and his troops were sent to get the gun." from the farmers that they were storing in in lexington and so it's it's it's really interwoven into the american story into the american dna that to have free society to have a free country that americans have the freedom to be arm, not everybody wants to be armed, not everybody is armed, but for the

people who want to protect themselves, their families, their farms, their livelihood, well that should be their right, certainly when the mob is marching down the street, to attack and looking to burn down buildings when there is a failure of the government to preserve tranquility, what other choice do americans have, let's talk about that, let's talk about that, buse isn't that the responsibility of any government actually to make sure that the society is secure, not the individual citizens, so what happens like we saw in los angeles, what 20, 30 years ago when there were the la riots and the police literally abandoned the korean neighborhoods, there was zero protection as there was as there was mayhem and chaos in that neighborhood, the korean americans had to go to the rooftops to protect their neighborhoods, we saw it in texas, we saw it in the nightclub shootings and then we see

another failure in butler pennsylvania, just because law enforcement fails doesn't mean you take away the rights of americans because the americans want that right in case government. it's a circular argument that does not help people make them safe right, right? it's actually quite mind boggling, can i say? well, david, um, when the united states was actually founded on violence and currently there are more gans than there are people. are you surprised by this event, by this assassination attempt? no, i mean we don't know much about the young man, a republican who shot at donald trump, and i hope you find out. more, but let me point out that we have always had gun controls in the united states, including in the british colonial area under the first american republic, which only lasted seven years and under the constitution in dodge city, kansas, now that is the iconic image town for the frontier old west, you were required at the

city limits to holster your weapon and to go to the sheriff's office and to turn it in, you were not allowed to go down the street, go to a bar, to do anything armed with a and the idea that individual americans are better off with all these guns, i think is disproven by the fact that other democratic or modern country allows this and nobody else has the... level of gun deaths that we do in america, so i i reject totally your other guests argument that david, david, let's be honest, okay, david, when you're driving through washington, you're driving through, when you're driving through trenton, new jersey, you don't want to be armed, are you crazy? i go to trenton new jersey fairly often, and also i don't interrupt people, try to have some manners, drop being aggressive, i go to harlem, i go to many places and i'm somebody who has personally hunted down murderers and confronted them and gotten them

arrested, so yes, i have no problem with that, i live five blocks outside of one of the cities that has one of the highest murder rates in america, but it turns out all the excuse me, it turns out that almost all the crime occurs in three of 40 zip coats, it's highly concentrated, and what you're speing is just classic. you're just, you're also filled, stay with me, neil, stay with me, i thought this would have a conversation, he's just ranting and i'm never going to get a word, you, it's your turn out, go ahead, go ahead, neil, first of all, i just want to address the quick point that the united states was was created out of violence, i would say virtually every country was created by an act of violence, i mean they just happen to get a revolution if the rebels win, it's a civil war if the government wins, it was also, it was also a genocide of... the native americans, let's let's remember the roots of that, we're talking about, let's

deal with the united states, let's deal with the united states in the context of other countries rather than comparing us with candyland, first of all, second of all, americans are not feeling safe, we do not feel protected by our government, we do not feel protected by law enforcement, and when government fails, americans want the right to protect themselves and that's the bottom. line, the vast majority of american gun owners wish to god that they did not have to have a gun, but this is a this, this is decision forced upon them by the failure of the government to create a tranquil society. what we saw in butler pennsylvania was a failure of law enforcement, what we saw at uvaldi was a failure, what we saw at these school shooting is a failure where law enforcement will literally wait for the victims to bleed out. rather than to seek to seek the killer and take him down, and so

what are we supposed to do? honestly, he can say he he, he doesn't feel, he feels david feels safe going through harlem, he feels safe going through trenton, he feels safe going through these neighborhoods in washington dc, god bless them because in washington dc, sodomor, the just supreme court justice of the united states was carjacked like a week ago, i mean so if you have a supreme court justice who isn't safe in washington dc, then where are we so? wouldn't you say then that the problem, there's something more fundamental here with the problem, that the people, the individual people have to protect themselves, i mean it's not the old west, we're talking about 2024, there are systems that are in place throughout the world, societies are safe, so what is it about the united states that it is not safe? well, maybe we should stop hugging the thugs and put them in jail and keep them in jail, maybe we need to expand the death penalty so that so that fam of victims understand that what they went through is valuable to society and so the criminals

understand that they will be held accountable. criminals do not feel like they will be held accountable in this country. they go to jail where they are treated very well and they're pampered, they get their master's degree. the victims, the children of their victims can't go college, but the murderers get their master's degree in college. it's an absurd system that we have in this country. well, david. um, and there is a long history of violent politics in the us, if we look at the 60s and 70s where several people were assassinated from president john f kennedy, to martin luther king, malcome max, robert kennedy and others, and of course in the 80s we had president ronald reagan, and attempted assassination, was shot, so political violence is not foreign to this society. i want your assessment overall of this, and and why is this the case in your perspective? well, political alliance absolutely has been endemic to american society from the

beginning, whether it was, as you pointed out, uh, the uh, taking of land from the indigenous peoples here uh, right up to the shooting yesterday of mr. trump and the unfortunate supporter of his was killed. uh, gun violence begets gun violence, more guns equals more killings. uh, the simple fact is the us is an outlier in the world, in terms of its gun violence, the amount of guns it has, and i take it that your other guest, unlike me, has not spent a great deal of his life with law enforcement and talking to people who are criminals. uh prisons, putting people in prison simply breeds more crime, it doesn't address the reasons that we have crime. now uh, i'm sure that uh your other guest won't agree with that whatsoever, but look at canada, australia, new zealand, england, france, italy, they don't have any level of crime like we do in america, and we don't have any level of homicides by gun as

in the united states, there is no reason for a civilian to carry assault right. a weapon specifically designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible in a military battlefield. okay, well neil, republican congress and mike kelly from pennsylvania says the blame lies somewhere in the psychy of america. your thoughts on that statement, what do you think he meant by that? i uh, it it boggles my mind that he would say something so stupid, it's, i can't read the congressman's mind and... "i doubt very much that he can read the mind of america. i think that uh, the bottom line is that uh, if americans, if americans feel threatened, they should have the right to arm themselves and someone's, it's someone's going to tell me that i can't protect my family, i can't protect myself, my business, the people i care about, and then i i'm

really offended, and the idea that you're just, i'm supposed to just take my chances because of some stupid ideal that..." somebody cooked up academia or wherever it came from, it's absurd, in the real world, in the real world, most americans who own guns, wish they didn't have to own a gun, but they do it out of necessity, and they don't do, they do it out of love, love for them for themselves, their family, their livelihood and their community, the people who walk around their communities with with with armed, they are like shepherds amongst us, okay, a best case scenario for a... showing up a shooting is 10 or 15 minutes, okay? these by the time the cops show up, they're just putting yellow tape around the crime scene and taking statements. if someone is armed and at the scene, they can take down the threat in seconds and that that saves lives, and we there are no statistics for all the crimes and all of the lives saved because

americans are armed, but i would guess it's probably million a year of these things that go on. i, it's never happened to me personally, but i know and... number of people who have saved their own lives and the lives of others just by brandishing a weapon and getting themselves out of very dangerous situation, but the guess the alter your alternative for them would be put your weapon down, get shot, and in 15 minutes a police officer will show up and take crime pictures. yeah, can i just say, i mean this is very interesting conversation for me as an american uh, growing up in the united states and living in iran now, a country where as a woman "i can actually in this major city of tehran, no 10 million people, that i can actually go out and walk at 2 o'clock in the morning by myself and not expect to get shot. so so, so it's it's really mind bombling why the united states with its uh sophistication, technology um being the uh the hejamon of the world, why it cannot keep its own people

safe? i mean, i guess this is the main question at hand, but but let me let me just go on, i mean uh, i would just..." iran they don't let the criminals out of jail, i think that the the justice system in iran is swift and appropriate, and if somebody rapes and murders a child, i imagine they don't get three years with probation, yeah, that's iran, that's for sure, if someone rapes a murder child, that is definitely for sure that is the case, well david, i mean um, let's talk about um this whole situation, because i don't know, sitting here, it it seems somewhat ironic that we have trump and also biden. both individuals, let me just say, who have allowed and ordered assassinations of other people, but now there's such outrage, um, because i mean, this is, i'm so sorry, but this is what we see from the united states, when we're talking about under donald trump that he assassinated, of course we notenant colonel um solimani, who was in another country, who had fought the terrorists, the dish

terrorists and trump ordered the assassination in another country, even though he was invited by iraq. and bragged about it, or we're talking about biden who is supporting right now, a genocide in gaza, a palestinian babies who've been cut to pieces, so it's amazing the outrage. i mean, your take, david. well, the world is look a very complicated place. unlike, neil, un who just said he was speaking for millions of americans, but the congressman doesn't know the mind of americans, i'm not going to try to do that. uh, the fact is that the president of the united states, because the us is de facto... empire uh, whoever it is, is going to end up using his position as commander and chief to order killings of people, and some of those are going to be really bad decisions as with the... iranian military officer uh where it provoked unnecessary responses. it is one thing to shoot sniper, it's another thing to pick out

a political target as donald trump did, and part of the reason for that is donald who i've known for 36 years have written three bestselling books about him, and i was the first person to write that he might become president of the united states in 1988, 36 years ago. donald doesn't know anything. "if you asked donald, what's the difference between a sunni and a shia, he would have no idea, and i don't expect most americans to know that, but the president of the united states better know that very well, so always contradictions in the world. i think the issue about violence in america that needs to be addressed is that we have over 390 million guns in this country, other country has gun or anything like that, allow any kind of gun, you have to show identification to by" certain kinds of medicine if you have a cold at the drug store, but not if you buy an assault rifle and the bullets that go in it. and that's the core of the problem here, and

combined with that we get things like neil making up history and not recognizing that we've always had gun controls in america, as my example showed with dodge city, kansas. well, neil, though there has been calls for national unity, i have been monitoring social media after this assassination. attempt, how likely is this to cause greater division in the country as there are many questions still surrounding the overall assassination attempt? well, because of our political system, especially as you get closer and close to the election and very much during the election when there's actual voting, the system is uh forces people into a binary choice, which is why you there's always talk of third-party candidates, in fact abraham lincoln was a third-party candidate, but in the end "it's uh, you know, it's black or it's white, you know, and that's it, and so, it's going to be division because our system forces you to make decision, in effect there's no middle ground, you either pick the

republican or you pick the democrat, but you to go back to your really, i think the point of this conversation is political violence in the united states, i i do want to point out that the leader of the republican party who got more than 70 million votes in 2020." "there was a there was an attempt to kill him, and yet no cities were burned, nobody was tearing down any statues, no police stations were torched, and so at least on the republican side, which you was often the smurched to sort of the party of so-called insurrectionists, there was no political violence in response to this assassination attempt on president trump, i don't know if you could say the same if it happened to someone on the left, i suspect..." since it's in my experience as a reporter covering tipa and democratic politics even massachusetts with the carpenters union that political

violence is is very much a part of left-wing politics. okay david, any final comments? you have 30 seconds. well, i think we need to recognize that violence in america is a long endemic problem. donald trump has repeatedly made public calls for violence, he's told people to beat up people in his audience. pay their legal bills, which he would never do, and donald trump is a man of violence, he called for the executions of people, he didn't even get trials like the central park five who were later exonerated, and you have to see him in that context. he's not a politician, he's con artist who has declared he wants to be our dictator, something i said in 2015 and wrote in 2016, would be his plan, he would never peacefully leave the white house, and that's what we saw with his failed coup three years ago. okay, all right, and on that note thank both of you for being with me. david k johnson, investigative journalist, founder of dcreport.org, out of new york, neil mccape, conservative political

commentator, national political reporter for redstate.com out of tample florida, and thank you viewers for being with us on another spotlight. maria hashimi, hope to see you right here next time, goodbye. world war ii, the us came up with a sinister plan to gain the upper hand in war, but the destruction that left by it was beyond imagination. j. robert oppenheimer was a man who fulfilled the us dream of making an atomic bomb. the initial idea was a limited control test, but they ended up leaving japan's hiroshima and nagasaki in ruins. the spector still haunts the world.

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