Comments by Senate candidate Mike Durant from a 2011 speech in front of the U.S. Army War College resurfaced on Saturday, causing controversy in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race.
During the speech, Durant said “[F]rom a military perspective, the first thing that needs to be done is disarm the population. Let’s face it, if we could do that in some of our U.S. cities, that would be a pretty good step toward law and order.”
Durant continues to suggest the comments have been “mischaracterized” and that he supports the Second Amendment.
During a Wednesday appearance on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” Katie Britt campaign spokesman Sean Ross said he’s not satisfied with Durant’s defense.
“What is continuing to really worry me, Yaffee,” Ross said, “is that in his attempted — I guess you could call it an explanation or him calling it mischaracterized — he’s really doubling down on focusing on the process of going door to door and seizing people’s guns. It’s not that he’s, you know in that original clip, saying that would be inherently wrong in American cities. Again, his own words ‘that’s hard.’”
Ross said Durant’s response was not the right response by someone who claims to be a conservative.
“He doubled down on that argument that ‘no I don’t believe in it because it’s hard.’ That’s not the right answer,” he protested. “You shouldn’t believe in it because it’s not right and it’s unconstitutional. Not only is it unconstitutional, but we conservatives believe that rights like that to protect our families, to protect ourselves, to protect our homes, those are inalienable rights handed down by God.”
The campaign spokesman reiterated that Durant’s views on the Second Amendment were a problem.
“I just think he has a fundamental issue here, Yaffee,” he explained, “and the worldview, I don’t know whether you want to call it authoritarian or what you want to call it, it’s not conservative. I can tell you that.”
U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) also criticized Durant’s comments this week, saying Durant “opposes” the Second Amendment.
Senior campaign advisor Scott Stone responded to Brooks in a statement, saying, “Those of us who are very familiar with the Second Amendment? Is Mo Brooks really suggesting he’s more familiar with the right to keep and bear arms than Mike Durant? Mike is an American patriot and special forces soldier who served his country in defense of the Constitution and has shot more rounds in a month than career politician Mo Brooks has in his lifetime. This is just another ridiculous attack from career politicians.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
