The NRA has never seemed to care much about public perception. Back in 1999, just 10 days after the tragic massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School, the gun rights group went ahead and held a previously planned event in Denver, less than 15 miles from where 13 people had just been needlessly murdered, and more than 20 others were injured.
Similarly, the NRA forged ahead with its planned annual meeting in Houston, Texas over the holiday weekend, despite the fact that the state was still reeling from last week’s attack on Robb Elementary School—the deadliest school shooting in a decade. On Sunday, CNN’s Jim Acosta was joined by Judge Philip Journey, an NRA Board Member, and immediately took him to task for holding a pro-gun event in the wake of such a horrific tragedy—and promoting a jovial atmosphere. To make his point, Acosta pointed to the fact that former president Donald Trump danced his way offstage… which turned into its own sort of Abbott and Costello routine:
Acosta: Your group is holding its convention in Houston, where you are right now, just a few days after the massacre in Uvalde. We saw Donald Trump dancing on stage at the end of his remarks.
Journey: He was not! I was there; he was not dancing. Give me a break.
Acosta: How is any of this at all appropriate? We’re showing [him] onstage right now. He’s doing a little jig there. People are waving their NRA hats and so on. It’s this celebratory atmosphere right after a mass shooting where all of these kids are gunned down. How is that appropriate?
Journey: I think that what you’re doing is just telling part of the story there. Because at the beginning of his speech, he did do a very memorable memorial for the victims.
This, by the way, was that “very memorable memorial” that Trump offered:
This is just gross. They have Trump trying to pronounce and read the names of the dead children while the NRA rings a bell. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/AADaVc4o0s
— Ron Filipkowski
(@RonFilipkowski) May 27, 2022
Spoiler alert: He also did indeed dance. Watch for yourselves above (around the 1:45 mark) and below.
Acosta: Just a few days after the massacre, we saw Donald Trump dancing on stage l
Journey: I was there. He was not dancing
Acosta: We’re showing it right now
Journey: At the beginning of his speech, he did do a very memorable memorial for the victims pic.twitter.com/Grj2CHwj0W— Acyn (@Acyn) May 29, 2022
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/jim-acosta-donald-trump-dancing-nra-convention/