The finances of Speaker Johnson's tasteful NRA endorsement

Plus, geopolitical insight from Tommy Tubberville.

WHAT YOU MISSED

Only days after the horrific mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine that left 18 dead, the National Rifle Association (NRA) shared a video of House Speaker Mike Johnson from 2019 where he praises the organization. 

“...When Democrats are trying to push their agenda on the people, we remind them that the Second Amendment is grounded in those fundamental freedoms, those innate, inalienable rights that we have to personal liberty and personal security and private property. We can't lose sight of that,” Johnson says in the NRA’s post on X (formerly Twitter). 

That alleged right is what allowed the Maine shooter to wield guns like the Smith & Wesson M&P15 semi-automatic rifle — the sort of firearm that has been used in countless mass shootings and is legal to own in the state.

“So when they're pushing a bill for universal background checks or trying to delay the amount of time that it takes for law-abiding citizens to obtain a firearm for self-defense, we have to remind them that what's really at stake is that fundamental right that we have so grateful for the NRA and all its work in that regard,” Johnson concludes in the clip.  

But it’s not just the NRA that Johnson is in the pocket of. The Louisiana congressman has also received financial support from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a national lobbying group for gun manufacturers involved in an industry that garners billions in profits. 

The NSSF has actually outspent the NRA in recent years and has been crucial in blocking legislation that would limit its ability to expand the bottom line of the firearm capitalists they represent. And Johnson has been more than happy to play a role in making those profit margins even more lucrative. As always, it’s about following the money, not some commitment to the ethics of self-defense.  

As a national debate over whether the U.S. should provide more military and financial support to Israel as it prepares to engage in a deadly ground invasion of Gaza, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is asking the real question: What about all the Muslims crossing our Southern border?

Today on Fox Business, the one-time college football coach claimed that we would have “a 9/11 a month” if the southern border was not shut down. 

Tuberville’s comments seem to be a part of a broader right-wing PR maneuver that pins the influx of migrants from countries like Haiti and Venezuela solely on President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.  Just several days after the Hammas attack on Oct. 7, the conservative student group Turning Point USA alleged that 70,000 undocumented migrants from the Middle East had come through the U.S.-Mexico border. 

But if anything, the small number of Middle Eastern refugees seeking asylum via the southern border appear to be more likely to come in contact with federal law enforcement. But Tuberville’s paranoia is grounded in a cynical attempt to rile up a Trumpian base that is geographically and socially disconnected from the very real, climate-induced migrant crisis.