Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is in clean-up mode after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stepped in it with gun rights advocates by threatening to take away firearms.
The former Fox News host’s comment on Monday sparked a firestorm among the MAGA base and Second Amendment advocates, who put the close Donald Trump ally on blast.
“This Administration and Department of Justice will fiercely protect Second Amendment rights,” Blanche insisted in a X post on Tuesday.
It came after Pirro declared on Fox News: “You bring a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail.”
“I don’t care if you have a license in another district, and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding law owner somewhere else,” Pirro said. “You bring a gun into this District, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back.”
Gun rights groups, MAGA loyalists and GOP lawmakers immediately jumped on her warning.
“Jeanine Pirro threatening to arrest people for carrying in DC, even if they are law-abiding and licensed, shows how broken and out of touch these gun laws are,” the National Association for Gun Rights posted. “Unacceptable and intolerable comments by a sitting US attorney.”
Rep. Greg Steube shot back on X at Pirro that he brings a gun into the district every week.
“I have a license in Florida and DC to carry. And I will continue to carry to protect myself and others. Come and Take it!” the Florida Republican wrote.
“Shall NOT be infringed is NOT a suggestion,” warned Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde. “We need nationwide concealed carry reciprocity NOW. Our Second Amendment freedoms don’t disappear when we cross state lines or enter our nation’s capital city.”
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie also questioned why a conservative judge was “threatening to arrest gun owners?”
“The District of Columbia has been ‘shall issue’ since 2017 when the requirement that you must have a ‘good reason’ to carry a handgun was struck down. Non-residents can obtain a permit in DC,” he noted.
As the backlash escalated, Pirro attempted to backtrack and clarify her comments on X.
“Let me be clear: I am a proud supporter of the Second Amendment. Washington, D.C. law requires handguns be licensed in the District with the Metropolitan Police Department to be carried into our community,” Pirro wrote.
She claimed they were focused on those who are “unlawfully carrying guns and will continue building on that momentum to keep our communities safe.”
But the vice president of the National Foundation for Gun Rights was not buying it, replying: “This is not what you said. You told us to mark your words, and we did.”
But Blanche arguing the Trump administration and Justice Department would protect Second Amendment rights comes one week after the president also ended up in hot water with gun rights advocates for declaring “you can’t have guns.”
The president made his comment while addressing the ICE killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis while departing the White House last week. Pretti was a legal gun owner, but videos showed he was not brandishing a weapon when he was shot multiple times.
“You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns, you just can’t,” Trump said. “You can’t walk in with guns. You can’t do that.”
Second Amendment advocates raged over the president’s claim. They pointed out that the right to carry a gun is still protected even when a person is protesting, or in Pretti’s case, shooting video on a phone.
