Malkin: Obama guilty of 'child abuse' for using 'kiddie human shields'

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin on Thursday accused President Barack Obama of "child abuse" because she said he had used children as "kiddie human shields" to advance his gun safety agenda.

On Wednesday, a number of children -- who had written the president calling for action after the December Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting -- joined him at the White House as he signed 23 executive orders and proposed that Congress take action to curb gun violence, including universal background checks, banning assault weapons, banning high-capacity magazines and outlawing ownership of armor-piercing bullets.

Fox News host Steve Doocy on Thursday told Malkin that "some on the right" -- like himself -- had accused Obama of using the children as "props."

"This is a time-tested tactic of the left -- and I've followed it from the Clinton years onward -- of using kiddie human shields to deflect tough questions about the costs and consequences of these often reckless and rash public policy decisions that are born of emotionalism and unfortunately exploitation, and not any real commitment to solving the problems," Malkin opined.

"What these Democrats do is use children very cynically to try and deflect accountability for their actions -- and in this case very imperial actions on the part of the president," she continued. "And I consider it a form of child abuse and political malpractice, very toxic."

But when it came to a National Rifle Association (NRA) advertisement that targeted the president's daughters because they were protected by Secret Service but most children did not have armed guards, Malkin insisted the pro-gun lobbying group had a "legitimate point."

Malkin opined: "For the White House and particularly for Michelle and Barack Obama, who have no problem dragging their daughters in front of the camera when they're arguing their own public policy point... for them to say, 'You're not allowed in any way shape or form or capacity to talk about our children and the impact of public policy,' hypocrisy!"

Watch this video from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Jan. 17, 2013.

(h/t: Media Matters)