Who knew how inspiring it could be to watch teenagers gang up on a U.S. senator on live TV?
CNN generally only rises to the level of compelling, have-to-watch television when something awful happens: a terrible accident, maybe, or (yet another) horrifying school shooting. Even then, it’s mostly the “let’s look at the car crash” kind of compelling, 24-hour news coverage that isn’t very informative or inspiring. Which is why what happened on the network last night was kind of amazing, as a bunch of teenagers—survivors of last week’s Parkland school shooting in Florida—stood up in the face of their elected official (and the lobbying group that supports him) and told him that he, personally, wasn’t doing enough to keep them safe.
The elected official in question: Senator Marco Rubio, who’s come under heavy criticism in the last week for his continued support of the National Rifle Association in the wake of the Parkland shooting. Rubio appeared at a CNN town hall event in Sunrise, Florida tonight, moderated by the CNN’s Jake Tapper, and attended by several teenagers who survived the attack. One of the teens was student Cameron Kasky, who drew continued applause from the vocal crowd for asking, and then continuing to press, Rubio on a single question: “Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?”