Kam vague on Joe, but urges Senate

Vice President Kamala Harris said Congress must move to pass gun-control legislation — but stopped short of saying President Biden would take immediate executive action if the Senate lacks the votes.

Harris made the comments on “CBS This Morning” Wednesday in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado that left a total of 18 people dead.

“It is time for Congress to act,” the vice president said. “And stop with the false choices. This is not about getting rid of the Second Amendment. It’s simply about saying we need reasonable gun-safety laws. There is no reason why we have assault weapons on the streets of a civil society. They are weapons of war. They are designed to kill a lot of people quickly.”

Harris urged the narrowly divided Senate to pass two bills already approved by the House that would expand background checks.

“The point here is Congress needs to act, and on the House side, they did. There are two bills which the president is prepared to sign. And so we need the Senate to act,” she told anchor Gayle King.

But the Senate — which is split 50-50 with Democratic control via Harris’ tiebreaking vote — appears unlikely to find support for any gun-control measures, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) opposing the House bills.

Harris was then asked if Biden would take matters into his own hands and use executive action on gun legislation if needed.

She suggested he would be hesitant to do so.

Instead, she deflected and said Congress passing legislation would create a “permanent” law.

“If the Congress acts, then it becomes law. And that is what we have lacked, that is what has been missing. We need universal background checks. You know, various states have done it, but there’s no universal approach to this,” Harris said, adding that the president is prepared to sign the legislation.

“We should first expect the United States Congress to act. I’m not willing to give up on what we must do,” she said.

On Monday afternoon, a gunman mowed down 10 people, including a police officer, in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder.

The mass killing followed another the previous Tuesday, in which a man murdered eight people — six of whom were Asian women — during a shooting spree at three Atlanta-area spas.

Adeal to legalize pot has emerged from Albany’s legendary smoke-filled rooms, but it looks like lawmakers jumped the gun on indulging when they were settling the testy issue of “driving while high.”

Weed impairs judgment, reaction time and alertness. States that legalized soon saw an increase in “driving under the influence,” with rising accident rates and road fatalities.

The deal involves a novel and undefined standard of “substantially impaired” by marijuana or cannabis products for DUI misdemeanor charges, vs. an “impaired” standard for other drugs. Driving only “impaired” by pot will be a simple traffic infraction.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins says she’ll get funding to train cops to recognize the levels of “impairment” and “serious impairment,” but it will remain pretty subjective. Get set for claims that police are enforcing a “Driving Stoned While Black” injustice and other games from defense lawyers.

Lawmakers have discussed legalization for three years, but they clearly spent too much time bickering about how to divide the tax proceeds and not enough grappling with the consequences for the general public.