Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem drew mockery from gun rights opponents when she told an NRA audience their organization isn’t “only made up of old white guys” — then C-SPAN cameras cut to a crowd shot.
Noem was a speaker at Friday’s NRA-ILA Leadership Forum in Indiana, where she extolled the group’s “diversity” in a moment that was flagged by Acyn Torabi:
Now, I probably don’t look like a traditional NRA member. The media would have us believe that the NRA has only made up of old white guys and all you old white guys can be proud and raise your hands. But there’s a lot of other people, a lot of diversity within the NRA. Well, let me tell you something. I baby (sic) a mom and a grandma, but I am the NRA.
The C-SPAN camera then (selectively and maliciously, probably) cut to a medium shot of a particularly old, white, and male portion of the crowd. Critics had a field day on social media:
Just let it play…the joke is at the end. Great catch by @Acyn https://t.co/zIWY3hKBpT
— Decoding Fox News (@DecodingFoxNews) April 15, 2023
Brilliant 😂 https://t.co/GtAq3Br2HB
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 15, 2023
Just wait for it. Trust me. pic.twitter.com/9kCv62PqGI
— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) April 15, 2023
I can’t stop laughing at cspan shade https://t.co/qhA1hGWUFP
— Florida Chris (@chrislongview) April 15, 2023
satire is dead look at this shit 0:30 https://t.co/N7un4KFKMz
— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) April 14, 2023
Noem also went viral for a portion of her speech in which she talked about her heavily-armed toddler grandchild.
“Little Miss Addie, who is almost two, and Branch who’s just a few months old, they have brought us so much joy. They’ve brought us purpose,” Noem told the crowd.
“Now Addie, who you know — soon will need them, I wanna reassure you, she already has a shotgun and she already has a rifle and she’s got a little pony named Sparkles too. So the girl is set up,” Noem said.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
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