Tucker Carlson: Bloomberg's soda ban is class warfare

Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson on Thursday declared that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempt to ban large sugary soft drinks was part of a class war because liberals drink Frappuccinos, which were not part of the ban.

During a Crossfire-like segment at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, a moderator asked Carlson and Democratic strategist Paul Begala if a .357 Magnum was more dangerous to the pursuit of freedom than a 44-ounce Big Gulp.

Begala said that unregulated guns were more of a concern because he disagreed with Bloomberg's soda ban.

"If you give a biggie Dr. Pepper to a bad guy, all he's going to do is get fat, but if you allow that bad guy, who is either a criminal or insane, to get a gun then bad things happen," Begala remarked.

Carlson, however, argued that "both firearms and Big Gulps are integral to American happiness."

"Firearms are the root of the right to self protect, there is no higher right," the conservative pundit opined. "I don't think, as someone who is neither insane nor a criminal, I ought to have to get the government's permission before I buy or sell a firearm."

"As for Big Gulps, this is merely another battle in the longtime class war that been going on and being waged by the left," he added. "They don't ban Frappuccinos because their donors drink them. They ban Big Gulps because they imagine the great unwashed that lives between Malibu and Manhattan likes them. So, this is a class-based attack on your simple pleasures. And by the way, it's one of many."

"Stand up to these attacks on the right to please yourself!"

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast March 14, 2013.