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NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.--"Thirty hissing possums in a barn"-the words used to describe the Mississippi legislature by the Weekend Update crew on Saturday Night Live. Many of you are talking about the skit. Gov. Phil Bryant is also talking about it. He was mentioned by name and his picture showed up on the SNL graphic.
"If you watch Saturday Night Live, you've got to expect that," he said. "They are a group of liberal comedians."
Bryant didn't sound like he was angry or holding a grudge in a Monday interview. In fact, he sounded quite forgiving, even as the national media pounds Mississippi and all other states who believe gun ownership shouldn't be messed with.
"Just right after that they showed Joe Biden and Barack Obama and were making fun of the president and vice-president, so I will have to give 'em the credit. They make fun of everybody and that's what they do.
Bryant attended the Second Amendment rally Saturday. There he said that he believes the framers held the right to bear arms so sacred they "did not even want it infringed upon". He said Monday, though, that viewpoints of even the steadfast are affected by the media.
"Particularly those of us who are in public life, they want to drive us from the field, from the bully pulpit and warn us," he said. "What they're saying now to Phil Bryant, governor of Mississippi, is if you keep doing these things, if you keep asking your legislature not to help enforce an unconstitutional presidential edict, then we're gonna make fun of you. We're gonna write things about you."
He said his concern is that many politicians will back down in the face of persecution.
"They've been very successful over the years of driving one elected official from another from the battlefield."
Bryant did not talk about CNN host Piers Morgan, whose rants against guns rights guests have become more intense over the past few weeks. SNL parodied Morgan Saturday night, but did not address those rants, which have been decried as vicious and rude by the right.
