We need to preface this with a few things: Pawn Stars on the History Channel fucking sucks and is emblematic of a once watchable network’s decline into trash TV. You can seriously learn more about real history watching their other staple, Ancient Aliens, than you can with goddamned Pawn Stars, and Ancient Aliens is utter shit. While we’re in now way under the impression that pawn brokering is somehow a noble calling, seeing some desperate schmuck coming in to their Las Vegas strip store to sell, say, a guitar used and signed by Elvis Presley, only to be met with “honest everyman” owner Rick Harrison being like “Ehhhh… I’ll give you $300 for it” was mind-meltingly infuriating.
‘Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison Breaks Silence Over Son’s Tragic Death Due to Fentanyl Overdose — Blames Biden’s Open Border Policies via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/g25R1i6BXk
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) January 23, 2024
Naturally Harrison is an unabashed Trump fan, even showed up to that fake “union” rally in Michigan back in September to support the Caesar. And if you needed anymore proof he’s a fucking asshole, his own mother sued him in 2022 after he cut her out of the pawn business her late husband built.
Still it was hard not to feel sympathy for Harrison after a number of outlets reported that his son Adam, 39, died of a fentanyl overdose a few days ago. It’s still hard, even seeing the Gateway Pundit and other right wing outlets’ spin on what Harrison actually said in a statement.
From the Pundit:
The cause of Adam’s death was confirmed by Rick Harrison in a statement to the New York Post on Monday.
“Yes, I can confirm Adam died from a fentanyl overdose,” Harrison stated, adding, “The fentanyl crisis in this country must be taken more seriously. It seems it is just flowing over the borders and nothing is being done about it. We must do better.”
This statement reflects a growing concern over the fentanyl crisis in the US, with Rick Harrison explicitly criticizing the current border policies under Biden’s regime. He suggests that these policies may be contributing to the ease with which fentanyl is entering the country.
Note the delta between what Harrison said and how Gateway Pundit characterized it, as if you needed any further proof there is no bottom with these people. He did not say the word “Biden.”
Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars blames Biden's wide open border after his son dies from fentanyl overdose.https://t.co/XBCr5tkyfP
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 23, 2024
At the same time, Harrison made it very easy for them and the other gutter MAGA media outlets to fill in that blank. It wasn’t like he wrote “My beloved son Adam lost his battle with addiction. I am devastated beyond words and I pray other families can recognize the dangers that fentanyl poses to their children and seek help for them before it’s too late.” This was unambiguously a political statement, and one that walked right up to the line of saying the “Biden Administration’s border policies caused this.” And maybe it did before some PR flack edited out that part.
Grief is a wicked monster. It does things to people, things no one else can understand. We’re not trying to pile onto Rick Harrison even if he is a piece of shit. We could go on for quite a while about a member of the “party of personal responsibility” finding himself in this spot. We won’t.
We can give him the benefit of that doubt and the sympathy, as detestable Rick Harrison was and still is before he suffered this loss. We’re also sticking with this headline, because at the bare minimum he’s complicit in the political weaponization of that loss. All sorts of families from all different backgrounds and politics go through the same pain every day in this country and have been for this decades-long opioid crisis. How would you feel if you lost a son or daughter to fentanyl in 2018 or 2019 only to see someone else pretty obviously blaming the current administration for what happened to his son? Would you want him sitting next to you in a support group?