At a Wednesday House hearing, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) shredded rhetorical nonsense from Amy Swearer, who’s with the right-wing group known as The Heritage Foundation and was among Wednesday’s witnesses.
Porter brought up Swearer’s claim at a past Congressional hearing that implementing a debated assault weapons ban would mean millions of otherwise law-abiding Americans would “become felons overnight.” This assertion is incorrect, although Swearer belted out right then and there, as Porter spoke, that it was accurate.
“I was quite surprised by your answer. You read the bill before you came to Congress to testify against it, yes?” Porter asked. Swearer indicated she’d done so. “So you knew that the bill would allow any gun owner to maintain possession of any semi-automatic assault weapon that was lawfully possessed before the bill became law?” Porter then inquired. Swearer admitted that such was the case and then appeared to try and make complaints about transfers of restricted firearms to other individuals… but it’s not as though millions of gun owners could be expected to go out and make illegal transfers of their restricted firearms, if such restrictions were actually put into place. Porter wasn’t interested in having Swearer speak over her and asked for intervention by chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
“I respect that we have different opinions on Rep. Cicilline’s assault weapons law, but we cannot have different facts. We have a duty to debate the merits of the proposal. You falsely testified under oath” about the bill’s supposed transformation of vast numbers of Americans into felons, Porter remarked. “I have been accused of falsely testifying under oath, and I would like to address it!” Swearer eventually said, as Porter attempted to continue the discussion.
“Earlier today, you testified that you hoped that this was the last time you testify before Congress. For the sake of our nation and the integrity of this Congress, I do too,” Porter said. Swearer angrily called Porter’s comments “insulting,” insisting she’d simply said she hoped it was the last time she spoke to Congress specifically after a mass shooting. “How dare you,” Swearer added. “How dare you misstate the law,” Porter shot back. Swearer — still angry — accused Porter of not even wanting answers to her questions, although Porter allowed her to respond within the limits of what she originally asked. Check that all out below:
Another recent House hearing on gun-related matters was also a site of confrontation with some of the more antagonistic elements of the GOP. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — who somehow just about always sounds historically arrogant — complained during the hearing that Democrats supposedly “want fewer guns” and that’s what’s “creating a lot of discomfort among our fellow Americans who cherish their guns and cherish their Second Amendment rights.” “Spare me the bullshit about constitutional rights,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) remarked to Gaetz at one point in the House judiciary proceedings, per CNN’s Manu Raju. “You know who didn’t have due process? You know who didn’t have their constitutional right to life respected? The kids at Parkland, and Sandy Hook, and Uvalde and Buffalo, and the list goes on and on,” Cicilline added to Gaetz this week.
