GOP Senator Suggests 'Idiot Control' After NYC Shooting
Kennedy told Fox News' Sean Hannity that 'all you can do in a time like this is be sorry' for the victims of the mass shooting before predicting that some of his colleagues will call for more gun control laws on Tuesday morning.
Fox News
'We've got hundreds of gun control laws, Sean. Maybe thousands,' he said. He later added, 'We don't need more gun control. We need more idiot control. And I don't know exactly how to do that but I do know this — I don't want to hear anyone feeling sorry for this guy who did this.'
Fox News
Elsewhere in the interview, Kennedy entertained the return of a 'more aggressive' version of the controversial 'stop and frisk' policing strategy in New York City, one that was found unconstitutional in 2013 as evidence showed it was used to frequently target Black and Hispanic people.
Kennedy has been a gun control opponent and has received a 92% rating or higher from the National Rifle Association since his first successful Senate campaign in 2016, according to the nonprofit Vote Smart.
Kennedy has resorted to his 'idiot control' line in response to several instances of gun violence over the years, including the Apalachee High School shooting in 2024, the Boulder supermarket shooting in 2021, and the Parkland school shooting in 2018.
Monday's slaughter in Midtown Manhattan joins the over 250 mass shootings in the US in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been 8,590 deaths due to gun violence in the U.S. so far this year and 15,704 injuries.
The motive of the gunman, who killed himself, remains unclear, officials said.
Kennedy: We don't need more gun control. We need more idiot control and I don't know how to do that. pic.twitter.com/OPhiDsRNIy
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 29, 2025
@Acyn / Fox News / Via x.com
Critics on social media critiqued the senator over his call to action.
You can stop a lot of idiots by taking away their access to guns. https://t.co/gNYxEY5hNZ
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) July 29, 2025
@hemantmehta / Fox News / Via x.com
The data shows that the USA has the worse problem with mass shooting. Does this mean we have the most idiots on the world too? https://t.co/wzx9dFG8V5
— Andres Fierro (@andres412) July 29, 2025
@andres412 / Fox News / Via x.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
4 minutes ago
- The Hill
Ex-Superman Dean Cain says he's becoming ICE agent
Actor Dean Cain, known for his role in the 1990's 'Superman' TV series, recently announced his plans to join U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. 'I will be sworn in as an ICE agent asap,' Cain said Wednesday evening during an appearance on Fox News's 'Primetime with Jesse Watters.' Cain, a sworn deputy sheriff and reserve police officer, said he feels he needs to 'step up' and help Trump's immigration enforcement efforts. A Hollywood figure who has been outspoken on political matters over the years, Cain last made headlines when he blasted James Gunn's revival of 'Superman,' which critics on the right blasted as having a pro-immigration message. 'For James Gunn to say it's an immigrant thing … I think it's going to hurt the numbers on the movie,' the actor said at the time. The new Superman set summer box office records during its first weekend in theaters. ICE announced earlier this week it is eliminating the age cap on new hires, allowing people older than 40 to join its deportation force and touted Tan up to $50,000 signing bonus as part of its ramped-up recruiting efforts. The actor, also known for hosting reality series 'Ripley's Believe It or Not,' is 59.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Marjorie Taylor Greene takes shot at Fox News viewers for being too old: ‘They are not the future of America'
Marjorie Taylor Greene took a jab at Fox News for its older viewership, claiming the network is appealing to an audience that's 'not the future of America.' Amid her recent rift with the GOP, the Georgia Republican has also struck up a feud with Fox News host Mark Levin. He called her a 'lunatic' during an appearance on Fox News Tuesday. 'The Republican Party isn't going the way of Marjorie Taylor Greene or her ilk. No way!' Levin said. Greene responded to Levin during an interview with Eric Bolling on Real America's Voice News Wednesday, and took a dig at Fox News' audience. 'Mark has never called me or talked to me in person,' Greene said. 'When he goes on Fox News, the network where he hosts his show, and calls me 'crazy' and refers to 'Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ilk,' he's insulting my entire district.' She continued: "Fox News better start paying attention, but their problem is most of the people that watch Fox News are very much up in age, the Baby Boomer generation, who I love, those are my parents, but that's their biggest audience. That's not the future of America." Nearly half of older Americans — 47 percent of those 65 and older, and 45 percent aged 50-64 — say they regularly get news from Fox News, according to Pew. That's compared to 32 percent aged 30-49, and 28 percent of those under 30. Older adults are more likely to get their news from watching TV compared to younger adults in general. Greene, a longtime loyal supporter of President Donald Trump, has publicly disagreed with the president and her own party in recent weeks. She has denounced Israel's war in Gaza, opposed Trump's recent artificial intelligence executive order, and called for the Trump administration to release the Epstein Files. 'I don't know if the Republican Party is leaving me, or if I'm kind of not relating to the Republican Party as much anymore,' Greene told the Daily Mail last week. 'I don't know which one it is.' Levin and Greene got into another spat in June over foreign policy. After U.S. airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, Greene criticized the move, saying she wanted to focus on issues at home rather than abroad. 'I don't know anyone in America who has been the victim of a crime or killed by Iran, but I know many people who have been victims of crime committed by criminal illegal aliens or MURDERED by Cartel and Chinese fentanyl/drugs,' the Congresswoman wrote on X. Greene added that she still supported Trump while disagreeing with the Iran airstrikes 'and getting involved in a hot war that Israel started.' Levin responded to her remarks, calling her a 'shameless nitwit' — and misspelled her name. 'Marjorie Taylor Green, shameless nitwit,' he wrote. 'How incredibly dumb is this Marjorie Taylor Green? She doesn't know anyone in America who has been a victim of crime or killed by Iran? You mean the thousands of Americans, especially military personnel, killed and maimed by the Iranian terrorist regime?'
Black America Web
35 minutes ago
- Black America Web
Op-Ed: The Texas GOP's Gerrymandering Plan Is Rooted In Racism
Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty It is not by coincidence that in the same week marking the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act being signed into law, Republicans in Texas are threatening to arrest members of the minority party in their efforts to steal political power from Black and Brown people – all in service to their bigoted leader. As explained by President Trump in a Tuesday phone interview with CNBC: 'We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor and good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know. And we are entitled to five more seats.' What Trump believes 'entitles' him to five more seats is laid bare in the racial makeup of the districts being targeted by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Republicans in the state legislature. We care about your data. See our privacy policy. They include the current district of Congressman Al Green, which includes a portion of Houston where I was born and raised, where, as noted by Capital B News, the proposed change would drop the Black voting-age population from 39% to 11%. Likewise, the Black voting-age population of Congressman Marc Veasey's Fort Worth-based district would drop 25%. Then there is targeting of Congressman Greg Casar's district in Austin, where last year, he became the first Latino to represent the Texas capital city in Congress. Speaking with the Guardian about the proposed shift in his district that would significantly dilute the voting power of Latinos, Casar explained: 'Even a conservative Supreme Court said central Texas Latinos deserve a district, and that's why my district exists. If Donald Trump is able to suppress Latino voters here in Austin, he'll try to spread that plan across America.' Well, the Texas GOP certainly doesn't want those Latinos in urban dwellings voting anyway, but I suppose if the Latinos in the border region that went GOP in the last election change in the midterms, Texas Republicans will just erase them like the minorities in the big cities, too. Casar's point about Trump's motivations and intentions should not go ignored, though. Source: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Getty Thankfully, his sentiment was recently echoed by Congressman Jasmine Crockett, who told MSNBC, 'This isn't just about the five seats in Texas. This is about a power grab. It's about basically setting the tone for what Donald Trump will try to do throughout the country so that he can suppress the voices of Black and brown folk just so that he can stay in power.' To me, it is quite obvious how inherently racist this all is, yet I'm not hearing many others – including Democratic leadership – make a similar argument to the public. Yes, it is right to dismiss Abbott's plans as 'stupid' and 'just not right.' Stupid because for all of Abbott's barking in service to Bankruptcy Batista in the White House, there isn't much he can do right now with the 50 Texas Democrats in the state legislature that fled to the state of Illinois to deny the quorum needed to convene the special session Abbott called to proceed with the GOP's redistricting plans. vSource: Albany Times Union/Hearst Newspapers / Getty As explained by state Rep. Jolanda Jones on Abbott's arrest threats to the press: 'I'm a lawyer. There is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says. Respectfully, he's making up some sh-t, okay? He has no legal mechanism. He's putting up smoke and mirrors.' In essence, as Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor, tells CBS News, Republicans 'can make idle threats, but as long as they are out of state, there's really nothing that they can do.' Ultimately, Abbott has the power to call as many special sessions as he'd like, so it remains to be seen what the Democrats in Texas can pull off, but it would go a long way in the meantime for more messaging around how inherently racist this GOP plan is in its motivation and execution. Governor Greg Abbott is a racist and it is evident in the way he defended the gun violence in Texas by citing what happens in Chicago; how he targeted 'critical race theory' and 'DEI' as a means to just get rid of Black people, and mentions of Black people in as many state-operated entities as possible; why he wouldn't call out how racist rhetoric motivated the murders of migrants and immigrants in the state in years past; why he would pardon a racist killer that texted a minor; why he signed on the most racist immigration bills in the country. It is now more than evident here, as he tries to take what little voting power nonwhite people have in a state where white folks only make up 40% of the population. Donald Trump's racism knows no limits, but in fairness to this power-hungry racist, none of this could have happened if not for Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. Roberts, an acolyte of Ronald Reagan, another racist who promised to 'Make America Great Again,' plotted for decades to gut the Voting Rights Act, and now that he's been successful in those efforts, he has given way to the current racist scheme set up by Trump, Greg Abbott, and Texas Democrats. Am I shocked that not many in the political or media establishment want to talk about how racist this all is? No, but that shouldn't deter the rest of us from putting on the pressure. It's good that some Democrats in other states have stepped up now that their own futures are at stake. Their lack of willingness to engage in this subject is not unlike their reluctance to let the Republican Party dominate Texas politics for decades without fighting. And look at where that got them. Sixty years after the Voting Rights Act became law should not be where we are now, but we are, and the Democratic Party must stop pussyfooting around about calling out Trump and the GOP for who they are, what they do, and why they do it. Michael Arceneaux is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book, I Finally Bought Some Jordans, was published last March. SEE ALSO: Op-Ed: Cory Booker Talks Like A Fighter—But Votes Like A Friend On The 5th Anniversary Of John Lewis' Death, Thousands Will Gather For 'Good Trouble Lives On' Protests SEE ALSO Op-Ed: The Texas GOP's Gerrymandering Plan Is Rooted In Racism was originally published on
