A Fox News host called Matthew McConaughey “someone from Hollywood” in response to the star’s powerful and emotive gun control speech from the White House.
The Oscar-winning actor choked up and pounded a lectern in the White House briefing room as he showed off artwork by some of the victims of the Uvalde massacre.
But on the right-wing news network, host Sandra Smith described the speech as “someone from Hollywood calling to restore our family values in the wake of that mass shooting at the elementary school in Texas.”
“All right, you were just listening to actor Matthew McConaughey there, born in Uvalde, Texas, meeting with the victims’ families, met with the president, saying we need to make the lost lives matter,” she told viewers.
“He went into the ways he believes we can improve the situation in this country,” she said listing the actor’s proposals, which include raising the age for buying assault rifles to 21, background checks and red flag laws.
Mr McConaughey grew up in Uvalde, where a teenage gunman entered Robb Elementary School armed with an AR-15 rifle and murdered 19 students and two teachers.
Later on Fox News, McConaughey told host Bret Baier that debate in the US has been hijacked by political extremes on both sides.
“I think we’re being told we’re more divided than we are. I think that the veil over the masses’ eyes, I think we got the numbers. We got to pull that veil off, quit drinking the Kool-Aid, because we’re hearing it from both sides, extreme right and extreme left, and they have the microphones,” said McConaughey.
“The masses have the numbers, we’ve got to take the mic back. Kick them off democracy’s boat, and say, ‘No, you’re not steering this Boat.’”
During his appearance at the White House, Mr McConaughey described how victim Maite Yuleana Rodriguez could only be identified by her favorite green Converse shoes after she was shot and killed.
“These are the same green Converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting, how about that?” said Mr McConaughey as he slammed the lectern in frustration.
Camila Alves McConaughey, the actor’s wife, also grew emotional as she held the small shoes in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Tuesday.
He also asked emotionally, “How can we make these lives matter?”
Mr McConaughey, who has publicly flirted with running for governor in the Lone Star state, visited Capitol Hill on Monday, the same day he penned an op-ed column calling for stricter gun control in the US.
In his op-ed, Mr McConaughey called for background checks, age minimums for gun ownership and mandatory waiting periods before the purchase of assault rifles as measures that could effectively diminish incidences of mass shootings in America. He also wrote with urgency about the need for more resources dedicated to mental health care.
