Former GOP Congressman and current MSNBC contributor David Jolly weighed in on pro-gun Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv‘s recent troubles by observing that the teenager’s postings were similar to what you would expect to see from a mass shooter.
Harvard recently rescinded its acceptance of Kashuv after a video surfaced that purported to show Kashuv making racist, anti-Semitic, and other inflammatory remarks on a private Google doc.
The document, which Kashuv confirmed in a statement apologizing for the remarks, also featured Kashuv saying he would “fucking make a CSOG map of Douglas and practice,” a reference to a shooting video game, and to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of the Parkland gun massacre.
A classmate revealed racist text messages from Kashuv, in which he said another classmate “goes for n*****jocks,” then wrote “pasty jew < n*****.”
On Tuesday morning’s edition of MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle, Jolly told host Stephanie Ruhle that while he believed teenagers should be afforded a chance at redemption, he agreed with Harvard’s decision.
Asked if he thought Kashuv’s pro-gun politics played a role in Harvard’s decision, Jolly replied, “I don’t, Stephanie, I take a much harder line on this.”
“I think this is the perfect story for our time when, within our culture, we have leaders who are giving greater permission to racist statements and people with racist
Jolly added that when he first saw Kashuv’s postings, “I had the same reaction have a lot of people, that perhaps a young man deserves redemption.”
“But if you look at this, this story is greater than Harvard,” Jolly said, “and what the screenshots show he said, according to Huffington Post, which are not getting enough play, is this young man posted ‘kill the effing Jews,’ he posted the n-word repeatedly, and he referred to one of these shoot-em-up video games and suggested that they should put a map of that on his high school.”
Jolly said that when he “really dug into this,” he determined that “these are the social media postings we see of a shooter.”
“And we ask where were the signs? See something, say something,” he continued. “We see a shooter, and then we go back and we look at social media posts, and this is exactly what we see. I understand the sensitivity towards this young man because of Parkland, I’m not a mental health professional to assess him on those grounds, but what I am suggest…”
“But congressman, is that
“No, it is not, Stephanie, because if an incident were to occur, and again I’m not saying it will with this young man, but these are the exact posts we find of people, particularly those who advocate for gun, for stronger gun rights,” Jolly said, and went on to add that while Kashuv may deserve redemption, “he also deserves a closer look to whether somebody with this profile should be able to purchase a firearm under the gun laws in the United States.”
Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.