News anchor Piers Morgan’s tenure with CNN officially ended on Tuesday this week, and according to a tweet sent by the British journalist, an exchange with radio host Alex Jones was among the highlights of his career there.
"If I'm to be remembered for anything [at] CNN, I'd like it to be this" Morgan told his 4.23 million Twitter followers on Tuesday along with a link to a YouTube clip of his infamous gun debate with Jones in the wake of the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Both the Brit and Jones made headlines in their own right last year when a discussion on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Today” concerning firearm laws in the United States turned stormy.
If I'm to be remembered for anything @CNN - I'd like it to be this: https://t.co/HptrYz9swr
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) September 2, 2014
"1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms!" Jones barked at Morgan during the broadcast. "It doesn't matter how many lemmings you get out on the street begging for them to have their guns taken! We will not relinquish them! Do you understand?"
Jones’ diatribe continued for more than two-minutes before he switched off topic from guns and instead began to discuss antidepressant drugs. By the next morning, the escapade had earned headlines around the globe.
"I can't think of a better advertisement for gun control than Alex Jones' interview last night," Morgan said during a later appearance on CNN. "It was startling, it was terrifying in parts. It was completely deluded. It was based on a premise of making Americans so fearful that they all rush out to buy even more guns."
Now nearly two years later, Morgan says he wants the moment to go down in history as being among the most remembered.
Strangely enough, however, some media analysts have previously speculated that Morgan’s stringent anti-gun stance is part of the reason he was relieved from his CNN job in the first place.
Morgan’s take on gun control is “more akin to King George III, peering down his nose at the unruly colonies and wondering how to bring the savages to heel,” New York Times media reporter David Carr wrote earlier this year in February where it was announced that “Piers Morgan Live” would be ending its three-year streak on CNN.
“I’m in danger of being the guy down at the end of the bar who is always going on about the same thing,” Morgan acknowledging, adding that he believes he’s made critics out of viewers by coming off as “this British guy telling them how to lead their lives and what they should do with their guns.”
In another message tweeted to his followers this week, Morgan recalled that another firearm debate didn’t sit well with his audience, either.
“I knew this kind of outburst wouldn’t endear me to gun-loving Americans — but I’d do it all over again,” Morgan tweeted.
On Infowars.com, a website run by Jones, writers argued that the January 2013 segment may indeed have been the best “Piers Morgan Live” ever experienced.
“The former host of Piers Morgan Live could never quite capitalize on the high ratings Jones brought to the show, which was ultimately cancelled by CNN earlier this year,” Infowars reported.