U.S. senators
from both political parties implore President Donald Trump to take a leading role in pushing for gun-control legislation, arguing that his political cover is vital to passing a bill.
WASHINGTON — Senators from both parties are imploring President Donald Trump to take a leading role in pushing for gun-control legislation, arguing that his political cover is vital to passing a bill.
“I think he knows that the mood of the country has shifted, such that he and his party are going to pay a huge price in the polls in 2018 and 2020 if they don’t start supporting things like universal background checks,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Murphy was one of several Democrats who praised Trump last week for his words during a Wednesday meeting with congressional leaders to discuss potential responses to the shooting last month in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people. At the meeting, Trump upended long-held GOP bargaining positions on guns, endorsing expanded background checks and lending support to a ban on assault weapons. Trump said that when it comes to confiscating weapons, authorities should “take the guns first, go through due process second.”
White House staffers have scrambled to temper that message, while the president held a meeting with National Rifle Association leaders in the Oval Office that he later deemed “good (great)” on Twitter. The NRA opposes several of the measures Trump seemed to endorse on Wednesday, including a provision to raise the minimum age for all gun purchases from 18 to 21.
But advocates of gun legislation in Congress hope that Trump will not be swayed. “He can set his legacy: President Trump coming forth to something like this and putting his support behind will give Republicans enough cover to support this,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who co-authored with Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., a bill to require universal background checks that failed to pass the Senate in 2013, in the wake of a shooting in Newtown, Conn.
Manchin, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” added that he believed that “if President Trump would have been president in 2013, that bill would have passed.” He said he would also take the challenge Trump offered Toomey and include a provision to raise the minimum age for purchasing firearms from 18 to 21 in their bill.
But the senator cautioned against adding a provision to ban semi-automatic rifles to that bill. “That would not help our bill at all,” Manchin said.