transcript: INTERVIEW WITH 7 News interview with Marla Sommer, 15 JULY 2024
SUBJECTS: Assassination attempt on former US President, Donald Trump
STARTS:8.50am
ENDS:8.56am
E&OE
MARLA SOMMER:
Just give us a brief summary of how you interpret the assassination attempt.
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, yesterday was a day of infamy and Thomas Matthew Crooks goes down with all those other villains in history, those assassins Gavrilo Princip, John Wilkes Booth, Sirhan Sirhan. I don't know what goes on through their minds when they do these things. They try to become a part of history by ruining history. You know, he would have been 12 or 13 when Donald Trump went into the Oval Office, The White House for the first time.
And it makes you wonder what's been going on in his head, what's been going on with people around him to want to change the course of history. And yesterday, in fact, in one sense did change the course of history because the American Election will now be played out in a different way. There'll be much more security. Donald Trump, by his very defiance after the shots rang out and after his ear was hit, then fist pumped “Fight, fight, fight”.
I mean; to have that presence of mind, I think it emboldened him, I think will certainly increase the Republican confidence levels. At the same time, on the opposite side, we have President Joe Biden, who has been a marvellous statesman for many, many years and many decades. But now he is looking old and fragile – this will change the course of the US Election.
MARLA SOMMER:
Would you say it does anything, in terms of, gun laws or gun control – not that anything has been done, but would you say that now is at the forefront?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
The Second Amendment is very strong, but when you consider that for every 100 Americans, there’s 120 guns. We've seen in Australia, how gun laws can change the way society heads, the way society is, and it save lives. What Tim Fischer, the former Nationals’ leader and Deputy Prime Minister, did in conjunction with John Howard when we changed the gun laws, I know there was a lot of pushback, particularly from rural and regional Australia, but it changed the course of Australia. Yes, farmers need guns, we need guns for trap shooting championships for sportsmen and women.
But we do not need, and we don't have now the level of guns in Australia. People say, well, you know, law-abiding citizens should have guns, but where do you start and where do you stop when there's a law-abiding citizen becomes not a law-abiding citizen? A leading American analyst said to me yesterday, it's time we woke up and realised that perhaps we have too many guns and this is somebody of one of the highest levels of American politics. There are so many people in America frightened, afraid, the homicide rates are horrendous. Those school shootings, if they don't give a wake-up call, then I don't know what does. We've got President Obama, who could have and should have done something about it he's a Democrat, they talk about peace, they talk about harmony. Joe Biden could do something about it, they could do something about it in the next term. But they won't, it's just America, it is the way they live, the way they are. The Second Amendment is very close to their hearts. I'm just thankful I live in a country where we don't have the prevalence of guns that they do in America. We don't have the homicide rates, we don't have the shootings – particularly the mass shootings, so often.
MARLA SOMMER:
What do you think this does in terms of political discourse and hate online, having more people come forward and violence as an option?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
People who use hatred as a weapon – and we've got them here in Wagga Wagga, they are called Sundays for Peace. They come down here on these very lawns every Sunday screaming abuse. Every time I walk past my Electorate Office, every time they see me in the street. I mean, it starts there, it starts at home, it's called respect. These people have no respect, they're putting up dreadful slogans in shopfront windows under the name of peace under the name of activism.
That's not activism, that's not peace. You know, it starts there, and it emanates right around the world. We were in a very troubled spot in the world, we're in a very difficult state. With Ukraine and the Middle East, I'd love to see peace in the Middle East. As I've said all along, a Palestinian baby is every bit as innocent as an Israeli baby.
But we've got people who are very anti-jew and very anti-Semitic right here in our own community. And they need to take a good, long, hard look at themselves. The Prime Minister said yesterday he's got an electorate office in Newtown that he hasn't been able to go into that since January this year, I mean, that's the Prime Minister of our country. This is because of the Pro-Palestinians who are now talking about starting their own political parties. I mean, this isn't Australia, this isn't the Australia I grew up in and it shouldn't be the Australia that we have in the future.
MARLA SOMMER:
And how would you describe that assassination attempt yesterday?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Shocking, appalling and thankfully, former President Trump has survived, he will go on and contest the election. Let's hope there aren't any more incidents of this nature.
MARLA SOMMER:
Thank you.