Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Thursday accused President Trump of being “afraid” of the National Rifle Association, as both parties weigh a potential legislative response to last weekend’s shootings in Texas and Ohio that left more than 30 people dead.
“He’s still talking to the NRA. He’s still afraid of them,” Ms. Klobuchar, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”
“When the moment’s hot and the cameras are on, he acts like he’s going to be reasonable,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “He could call Mitch McConnell tomorrow and get the Senate back in session to get this done.”
After the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Mr. Trump has expressed interest in doing something on gun-purchase background checks, though NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre spoke with the president this week and warned him that wouldn’t be popular with the president’s base, according to The Washington Post.
Mr. LaPierre said in a statement Thursday that the NRA “opposes any legislation that unfairly infringes upon the rights of law-abiding citizens.”
“The NRA will work in good faith to pursue real solutions to the epidemic of violence in America,” Mr. LaPierre said. “But many proposals are nothing more than ’soundbite solutions’ — which fail to address the root of the problem, confront criminal behavior, or make our communities safer.”
After the February 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, Mr. Trump chided lawmakers at a meeting at the White House for being afraid of the NRA and said people wouldn’t have to worry about that with him.
Congress did pass legislation after the Parkland shooting to try to incentivize states to share more records with the FBI’s national instant check system, but many Democrats said that measure alone was an inadequate response.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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