Former radio talk show host Michael Reagan says arguments that conservatives or talk radio hosts are somehow responsible for the shooting rampage in Tucson that killed six and wounded 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz, are ridiculous.
Saturday’s bloodbath was an extreme incident like the one in which a would-be assassin tried to kill his father, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview. Neither the right nor the left should be blamed for the actions of a disturbed individual, he added.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who has been leading the charge in placing blame, is “acting like a complete fool, and I think everybody agrees with that,” Reagan said.
There is no proof that the 22-year-old accused of the crimes, Jared Loughner, listened to talk radio or “even had a radio,” Reagan said in the exclusive interview.
“You listen to the people around him, those who went to school with him, those that said you can’t join the military, all of them felt this man was absolutely out of his mind, and crazy,” he said. “You can’t reason with a crazy person, you can’t at all, they will always find a reason, some kind of a reason to do damage. People saw this train wreck coming it finally happened. Don’t blame Rush (Limbaugh), don’t blame Sarah (Palin).”
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Reagan said the incident brought back memories of March 30, 1981, the day John Hinckley shot his father in an assassination attempt. At the time, he recalled, he asked a Secret Service agent how a person could get close enough to shoot the president and others around him. The agent told him that there isn’t enough training time to thwart crazy people.
“What happened on Saturday in Arizona was one of those crazies,” he said. “You cannot train enough for those people — they are crazy. Unfortunately, they’re able to get to you. As I said to other people, 318 million people in the United States of America, most of them were watching football on Saturday. One crazy person got free.”
Reagan also rebutted those who have attacked Palin for using target metaphors in campaigns against Democrats. He said such images have been used by Democrats themselves and, indeed, in campaigns as long as he could remember.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re asking people to go out there and shoot and kill people,” he said. “Here’s somebody who’s been planning this since 2007 when he felt that, in fact, he was dissed by the congresswoman, and he’s been planning it, the FBI knows that, they’ve talked about it and yet the left wants to make hay with it and try to blame someone. And this is just something that happens in the world that we live in today.”
Reagan likened the situation to what happened after his father died from Alzheimer’s. People were saying that there must be a reason and wondered why something couldn’t be done.
“We’re always trying to affix blame or find the reason why something happens,” he said. “Sometimes it just happens.”