Trump wavering on gun control
Dems urge president to stick with initial instincts
WASHINGTON – Days after a meeting at the White House where President Trump embraced bipartisan gun control provisions, the administration softened its support for stricter gun control. Such a move, Democratic leaders warned, could hurt the president’s standing with voters.
At a bipartisan meeting-Wednesday, Trump called on lawmakers to work together to come up with a “comprehensive” and “beautiful” bill that would address gun violence after a school shooting Feb. 14 in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 students and teachers were killed.
“I’d rather have you come up with a strong, strong bill, and really strong on background checks,”
Trumptold lawmakers in the meeting. He signaled an openness to a ban on assault weapons and said he’d like to see guns taken from mentally ill people first and go through legal due process second.
Trump urged Sens. Pat Toomey, RPa., and Joe Manchin, D- W. Va., to use their bipartisan proposal to expand background checks as a base bill and encouraged other lawmakers to work with them to expand it.
After the meeting, Toomey said the president was “very supportive of the substance of it — the specific bill. He was encouraging us to move this.”
Thursday, Trump met with NRA officials in the Oval Office, then changed course.
The next day, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Fox that Trump “has not fully gotten on board with” the expanded background check sponsored by Toomey and Manchin. She said the administration wouldn’t weigh in until the bill was finished.
Sanders said the president supported a bill introduced by Sens. John Cornyn, R- Texas, and Chris Murphy, D- Conn., that would boost authorities’ reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NICS.
Sanders said that what Trump wanted to see related to background checks is “largely done” by the Cornyn- Murphy bill. During the bipartisan meeting, Trump said he liked the “Fix NICS” legislation but wanted “it much more comprehensive.”
Thursday night, top NRA lobbyist Chris Cox said the president and vice president “don’t want gun control.”
Friday morning, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D- N. Y., urged Trump to go “with his instincts” and not the NRA on the issue.
“The hard right puts pressure on him, in this case the NRA, and he does a total 180- degree flip,” Schumer said. “It makes one feel that when America really needs something ... the president just succumbs to the group that puts the most pressure on him, in this case the NRA.”