MSNBC Panel Asks If Obama Should Have Asked Jake Tapper, Media 'Where've You Been' On Gun Control

In a wide-ranging press conference on Wednesday, President Barack Obama outlined his demand that lawmakers in Washington get serious about new legislative measures to avoid future massacres like what happened in Connecticut last week. ABC News reporter Jake Tapper asked Obama, regarding his newfound enthusiasm for new gun control measures, 'where've you been?' On MSNBC's Now, Alex Wagner and her guests wondered whether Obama could have pointed a finger right back at the media and asked where they have been on the issue of gun control these last four years.

RELATED: Jake Tapper Challenges Obama On Addressing Gun Violence: 'Where've You Been?'

Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Josh Tyrangiel praised the White House's strategy of forming a task force to build a coalition of support around new gun control measures, rather than rushing to pass legislation that could be undone later ' like what happened with the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban when it was allowed to sunset in 2004. 'To me, it actually does make sense to slow-play it a little bit,' said Tyrangiel.

POLITICO's Glenn Thrush disagreed. He said that the policy of effective gun control measures has been studied endlessly, and the White House could propose meaningful reforms tomorrow if they liked.

'I don't think the task force is the key,' Tyrangiel clarified. 'If the president was answering Jake Tapper's question honestly yesterday about 'where have you been,' he would have said 'politics is the art of the possible.' And, as awful as it is, this is the moment when I actually have people in a persuadable state.'

Tyrangiel said that, if he had pushed for immediate reforms in yesterday's press conference, it would not have been well received.

'This is a president who has lectured us as the media, in the White House time and time again, about our lack of an attention span,' Thrush shot back. 'Yesterday, he said that he thought D.C.'s A.D.D. would be put on hold long enough for him to be able to do this in January. I have serious questions about whether that's possible.'

'This isn't an issue about media attention, this is an issue about governance,' Tyrangiel replied.

'Yeah, but media helps, sort of, light a fire,' Wagner added. 'The president could have said, 'well, Jake Tapper, where have you been?'

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

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