Parkland Shooting Survivors Handed the NRA's Dana Loesch Her Ass on CNN

Welcome to WHAT NOW, a morning round-up of the news/fresh horrors that await you today.

The teenage survivors of the Parkland, FL, high school shooting—joined by high schoolers across the nation—have been rising up to say enough is enough and press for real gun control. Last night, in a forum on CNN, those teens got the chance not only to roast the hell out of politicians but also to completely hand the National Rifle Association’s representative, Dana Loesch, her ass.

It started when Emma Gonzalez, a Stoneman High School student, took the mic to ask a simple question: whether Loesch thinks it should be more difficult for people to obtain weapons like the AR-15 used to kill 17 of her classmates and teachers last week.

After taking the time to patronizingly thank Gonzalez for speaking up, Loesch—who’s infamously starred in a string of insane NRA videos—tried to steer the debate in another direction, emphasizing that the gunman was a “crazy,” “insane monster” and saying, “this individual was nuts.”

Gonzalez didn’t accept the dodge, and interrupted Loesch to ask her question again, verbatim. The NRA spokeswoman was heckled throughout her response, and at one point, a member of the audience could be heard shouting at Loesch: “You’re a murderer!”

But the real crown jewel of the evening was when Cameron Kasky, another Stoneman student, liquified Florida Senator Marco Rubio by asking him to commit to not taking money from the NRA.

Rubio’s response was basically that he can’t help it if people support his pro-gun agenda and want to shower him in cash and he’d prefer to keep taking the NRA’s money, thanks.

But the teens weren’t the only one getting a good one-two at the bad guys. After Loesch tried and failed to run circles around Gonzalez, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel chimed in to say:

I understand you’re standing up for the NRA and I understand that’s what you’re supposed to do. But you just told this group of people that you are standing up for them. You’re not standing up for them until you say, ‘I want less weapons.’”

Just in case you start to feel a modicum of sympathy for Loesch, it’s worth reminding that she previously called people who call for gun control after mass shootings “tragedy dry humping whores.”

WHAT ELSE?

• “President Trump has a rare political superpower…” No.
• Ivanka Trump is heading to South Korea for the Winter Olympic Games closing ceremony, and also to try the diplomacy the Vice President so miserably failed at.
• I just need to put one more of these in here because the memes are so good and also accurate.

Happy Thursday!