The Hill News

The senator who defended airing a controversial ad involving a gun said on Monday that he probably would not have released the ad in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting.

When then-Gov. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was campaigning in October for the U.S. Senate last year he aired a 30-second ad in which he shot a copy of the Obama Administration's healthcare reform legislation. A day after the Arizona shooting that claimed the lives of six and Rep. Giffords barely survived, A day after the Arizona shooting that claimed the lives of six and left more than a dozen wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) Manchin, a conservative Democrat, released a statement in which he seemed to defend the ad.

"The act of a deranged madman who commits a horrific act should not and cannot be confused with a metaphor about a piece of legislation," Manchin said in the statement. "I have never targeted an individual, and I never would."

But in an interv! iew with the West Virginia Gazette on Monday Manchin said he probably would not have aired the ad today in the wake of the shooting.

"I can't say that we would, I really can't," Manchin told the newspaper. "Because it's a much more sensitive thing we're dealing with right now."
Manchin told the paper that the shooting would have made people more sensitive to the ad.

"[The Giffords shooting] was the act of a crazed, deranged person but it would have made anybody more sensitive to that [running the ad]," He continued.

Manchin's statements come as Republicans and Democrats argue over whether heated rhetoric or gun depiction has anything to do with the shooting. Some legislators, including Manchin, have called for a general toning down of what they say has been excessive language in the p! ast months.

"I hope this terrible act of immense pa! in encou rages all of us to come together with a renewed spirit to work together for our nation," Manchin said to the Gazette. "We need to put our political differences aside and strive to find a common sense bridge, no matter our backgrounds."