Carney: NRA ad ‘repugnant’, ‘cowardly’

White House spokesman Jay Carney called a video released by the National Rifle Association on Wednesday that references President Obama’s daughters “repugnant and cowardly.”

“Most Americans agree that a president’s children should not be used as pawns in a political fight,” Carney said just prior to a press conference in which the president unveiled his plan to combat gun violence. “But to go so far as to make the safety of the president’s children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly.”

{mosads}The ad calls the president an “elitist hypocrite” because he opposes putting armed guards in schools when his daughters are protected by the Secret Service, which the agency insists upon.

“Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” the ad’s narrator asks. “Then why is he ‘skeptical’ about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school?”

Obama’s press conference was attended by a handful of school children the White House said wrote to the president asking for increased gun restrictions. Some conservatives have criticized the president for using those children as political pawns.