Fox Host Debunks The Network's Own Charge Of Obama's Hypocrisy On Guns

Fox News host Alisyn Camerota deflated the network's bogus attack that past comments from President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden demonstrated hypocrisy on gun rights.

Biden met with gun rights activists at the White House Thursday to discuss possible courses of action to curb gun violence. Fox & Friends responded to discussion of a comprehensive gun violence prevention program by accusing the White House of hypocrisy, suggesting the White House would renege on past statements and attempt to take away guns.

To support his charge of hypocrisy, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy cited a 2008 rally in which Biden said: “Barack Obama ain't taking my shotguns, so don't buy that malarkey.” He also played the following deceptively cropped 2008 campaign speech by Barack Obama:

OBAMA (VIDEO CLIP): So I don't want any misunderstanding. When ya'll go home and you're talking to your buddies, and they say, “He wants to take my gun away,” you've heard it here, I'm on television so everybody knows it, I believe in the Second Amendment, I believe in people's lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away, I will not take your rifle away, I won't take your handgun away. 

The charges of hypocrisy are fatally flawed, however, as co-host Alisyn Camerota quickly pointed out. After playing the segments, Camerota asked: “How is that hypocrisy? [Obama is] not talking about taking -- confiscating people's guns.” Indeed, the White House has not yet made any concrete proposals and continues to meet with gun violence victims, gun rights advocates, and other stakeholders.

The hypocrisy charge is even more flawed than Camerota said because a given that part of Obama's 2008 comments were missing from the clip Fox aired. In the full clip, President Obama explicitly says: “There are some common-sense gun safety laws that I believe in. But I am not going to take your guns away.”