MSNBC guest bizarrely ties Bud Light controversy to recent gun violence: 'Culture of fear'
MSNBC guest and former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens blamed the recent spate of gun violence in the country on the "culture of fearfulness" and outrage ginned up by Republicans.
MSNBC guest and former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens blamed the recent spate of gun violence in the country on the "culture of fearfulness" and outrage ginned up by Republicans.
Stevens, an anti-Trump Lincoln Project senior advisor, claimed that conservative outrage towards Bud Light using a trans woman for marketing for example, promotes angst that rips up the "civic bond" of Americans and leads to shootings.
The former GOP man made his comments during the Wednesday episode of MSNBC’s "The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle," after the host asked him his for his perspective to the "latest round of gun violence."
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A panel on MSNBCs "The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle" discusses the recent shootings that have occurred in America. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
Several shootings have occurred in the country since last week, including a mass shooting at a Sweet 16 party Alabama, and the high profile shooting of Black teenage Ralph Yarl by an elderly man after the boy rang the man’s doorbell.
Another shooting claimed the life of Kaylin Gillis on Saturday, after a 65-year-old man shot at her car as she mistakenly pulled into his driveway while looking for a party at a different residence.
Though no political motive has been found for these crimes, Stevens claimed Republicans have stoked the political atmosphere that has caused them.
"Look I think there’s a direct line between a culture of fearfulness where people who live in a world in which they feel threatened by Instagram posts or a beer label," he told Ruhle, alluding to conservative boycotts against Nike and Bud Light for making trans woman Dylan Mulvaney one of their paid partners.
This undated photo provided by Ben Crump Law on Monday, April 17, 2023, shows Ralph Yarl, the teenager shot by a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri. (Ben Crump Law via AP)
He added, "When you stoke that kind of fear, that sort of paranoia. It just rips apart any sort of civic bond between people."
Unlike many liberals, Stevens avoided putting the blame on guns and continued to harp on this overall culture of fear being the fault of shootings. He said, "There's a deep sickness here that goes beyond just guns. It goes to this culture of fear and really, I mean I hate to say this because I worked for the Republican Party a lot of years."
Stuarts even put a dark twist on the last stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner, saying that Republicans have made America "the home of the fearful now. Not the home of the brave."
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The Lincoln Project man then claimed that only a tiny few form the GOP are speaking out against this, stating, "And there’s nobody inside the Republican Party except for a few people who are speaking out on this. And at the heart of it, it’s because they don't really have a positive policy agenda."
Stevens also claimed Republicans have harnessed this culture of fear to "maximize their predominantly white vote."
In a tweet posted before his MSNBC spot aired, Stevens made a similar point. He wrote, "The same fear that an Instagram post and a beer label is a personal threat to your way of life is the fear that drives someone to shoot a stranger at their door or driveway. It’s a culture of fearfulness in which anything you don’t know or understand is a threat."
Police vehicles at the scene of a mass shooting in Dadeville, Alabama. (The Alexander City Outlook )
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