NRA TV Host Apologizes For Tweeting North Korea Should Attack Sacramento
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- As the host of a National Rifle Association show on YouTube, Grant Stinchfield has repeatedly spoken about the seriousness of the North Korean threat.
Now, Stinchfield is under fire after a tweet he posted suggested Kim Jong-un aim a nuclear missile at Sacramento, California instead of Guam.
It all started when Rosie O'Donnell and Stinchfield were in an on-air back and forth about President Trump's ability to deal with North Korea, and she made a joke.
Stinchfield responded, "I guess that's what they do in California, when you make millions of dollars making flop movies, you make a joke out of everything including our families… our families that are now under great threat from North Korea. We could be blown off the face of the map and she's making jokes."
He went on Twitter later Friday night and tweeted, "Let's send a note to North Korea that Sacramento changed its name to Guam!"
Stinchfield later removed the tweet and told the NY Daily News, "It was meant as a joke and I regret it. What's going on with North Korea is no laughing matter."
Several Sacramento residents responded and they were not laughing. Wrote one: I live here with my 4 kids literally minutes from the capitol. Every time I read this I feel sick."
One man appeared to quit the NRA, writing, "You can close the barn door, but it's too late. I am now no longer a member of the NRA, Sacramento is my hometown. NRA, act like Americans!"
North Korea says it has a plan in place to fire four Hwasong missiles to hit about twenty miles from the island of Guam.
But Governor Eddie Calvo says he's confident President Trump will protect his island and California, too.
"I appreciate the president's leadership. He's providing a very clear message that any threat to Americans, whether it is here on our island paradise in the western Pacific or in California or in New York, that he will insure our protection," he said.
On his show, Stinchfield has been a critic of media and people criticizing President Donald Trump's response to North Korea, calling them "deceitful" and "anti-American." He says they aim to "simply to tear our country apart."