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Federal Judge Claims the COVID Vaccine Kills More People Than Mass Shootings Do
This is what happens when a right wing judge begins to cite rely on Tucker Carlson's right wing talking points to contradict actual evidence introduced at trial or reality for that matter. I thought that there was a prohibition against relying on evidence outside of the record, but perhaps NewsMax, Fox and OANN enjoy a special privilege.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/federal-judge-claims-the-covid-vaccine-kills-more-people-than-mass-shootings-do/ar-AAKNI7e?ocid=msedgdhp
Benitez’s 94-page opinion is riddled with bizarre and unsupported claims—even more so than his previous decision blocking the kind of high-capacity magazine used in the Thousand Oaks shooting. Below are five of the opinion’s most alarming and unbelievable assertions, from COVID misinformation to outlandish speculation that AR-15s are necessary to stop rape.
1. COVID vaccines are more dangerous than assault weapons. Benitez spilled a great deal of ink arguing that mass shootings involving assault weapons are “infinitesimally rare.” (At the same time, he argued California’s assault weapon ban has utterly failed to limit mass shootings, a contradiction he never attempts to square.) The judge reached his conclusion by discounting experts’ methods of counting mass shootings. In reality, the AR-15-style rifle, the quintessential assault weapon, was used in many of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings, including in Boulder, Las Vegas, Aurora, Sutherland Springs, Pittsburgh, and Sandy Hook; a nearly identical rifle was also used in the Pulse massacre. Notably, the weapon was also used in the 2015 San Bernardino attack, which killed 14 Californians. Despite this record of slaughter, Benitez wrote that “contrary to public misinformation, mass shooting events are rare events.” Benitez added, “More people have died from the Covid-19 vaccine than mass shootings in California.”
As the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake reported on Monday, this claim is false. There have been, at most, three deaths that may be linked to the COVID vaccine in the entire country. That is just one-third the number of people shot to death in last month’s San Jose massacre. Blake notes that Benitez likely derived this myth from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who manipulated data to misleadingly suggest a link between COVID vaccines and death. Carlson’s lies have now crossed over into a major Second Amendment decision.
It should not come as a shock that Benitez regurgitated Carlson’s misinformation. The judge is widely known as a crank to attorneys who have tried cases in front of him. One told me: “I’ve appeared in front of 30 federal judges in my career. He was the most contemptuous, dimwitted one I’ve ever been in front of. He clearly opposed our case and tried to impeach our experts in front of the jury, but he wasn’t good enough to succeed at it. We won our case.”
1. COVID vaccines are more dangerous than assault weapons. Benitez spilled a great deal of ink arguing that mass shootings involving assault weapons are “infinitesimally rare.” (At the same time, he argued California’s assault weapon ban has utterly failed to limit mass shootings, a contradiction he never attempts to square.) The judge reached his conclusion by discounting experts’ methods of counting mass shootings. In reality, the AR-15-style rifle, the quintessential assault weapon, was used in many of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings, including in Boulder, Las Vegas, Aurora, Sutherland Springs, Pittsburgh, and Sandy Hook; a nearly identical rifle was also used in the Pulse massacre. Notably, the weapon was also used in the 2015 San Bernardino attack, which killed 14 Californians. Despite this record of slaughter, Benitez wrote that “contrary to public misinformation, mass shooting events are rare events.” Benitez added, “More people have died from the Covid-19 vaccine than mass shootings in California.”
As the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake reported on Monday, this claim is false. There have been, at most, three deaths that may be linked to the COVID vaccine in the entire country. That is just one-third the number of people shot to death in last month’s San Jose massacre. Blake notes that Benitez likely derived this myth from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who manipulated data to misleadingly suggest a link between COVID vaccines and death. Carlson’s lies have now crossed over into a major Second Amendment decision.
It should not come as a shock that Benitez regurgitated Carlson’s misinformation. The judge is widely known as a crank to attorneys who have tried cases in front of him. One told me: “I’ve appeared in front of 30 federal judges in my career. He was the most contemptuous, dimwitted one I’ve ever been in front of. He clearly opposed our case and tried to impeach our experts in front of the jury, but he wasn’t good enough to succeed at it. We won our case.”
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