‘I Don’t Want to Move On’: Mika Brzezinski Chokes Up Decrying ‘Desensitization’ After Texas Shooting
Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski tearfully recalled some of the tragic stories she’s covered over the years as a reporter when speaking about the shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left at least 19 children murdered.
Brzezinski’s emotional plea for action before national attention moves on from the story was met with journalist Mike Barnicle delivering a “harsh reality” look at the future.
Brzezinki began her question to Barnicle by naming off some of the stories she covered as a local reporter in Connecticut, including murder/suicides and the deaths of children. Covering such stories so close left her hardened, she said, and made her push emotion out of the equation as a survival technique, even when she moved to more national coverage.
“Then I went to the network and I covered 9/11, and you learn not to feel. That’s how you survive. You learn not to feel anymore. I remember the line was sandy hook when I saw how my children were so affected by it. That’s the line where I thought I’ve got to feel. That’s got to allow this to go over the line,” Brzezinski said, fighting back tears.
“And then this, honestly, we’re so frustrated. I don’t want to stop feeling. I don’t want to survive this story and move onto the next. I don’t want to move on. I don’t think any of us want to move on until something actually happens.”
There is a mass “desensitization,” she added, fueled by these mass shootings, as well as former President Donald Trump.
“It’s time to actually stop and think and feel and expect something to happen,” she said.
Barnicle’s response was a prediction of a future with no action on guns, but rather empty gestures from politicians until life simply returns to some semblance of normal. He did not hold back in what he described as the “harsh reality” of what’s to come.
The reality is what’s going to happen next. I can guarantee you what’s going to happen next. There will be maudlin speeches on the floor of the senate today and the house of representatives today. There will be sadness expressed by elected officials. There will be an NRA convention in Houston this weekend, and Republican senators like Ted Cruz will attend that conference and they’ll have something to say. There will be a moment of silence this weekend for the victims of this mass murder in Uvalde, Texas. There will be candles lit and vigils held at dusk all throughout the country, tonight maybe, maybe this weekend. People will hold the candles, they’ll tie ribbons around the posts and telephone poles in their towns to memorialize the victims of what happened yesterday in Uvalde, Texas.
Brzezinski could be heard audibly holding back tears as she listened to Barnicle. It was far from the first display of emotion in the wake of the tragic shooting on the MSNBC show.
“Then fast forward,” he continued. “There will be ball games to go to, Memorial Day picnics to attend. There will be almost instant amnesia in this country about what happened because there almost always is.”
There will be no legislation, Barnicle predicted, but instead it will be “business as usual.”
“Nothing will occur. No legislation will be passed,” he said. “No emergency will be met. No lives will be memorialized 10 days from now. It will be business as usual. That, ladies and gentlemen, is who we are.”
