Democratic presidential hopeful Tim Ryan on Friday said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was doing a Washington, D.C.-style rhetorical dance with his stated approach on gun legislation in the wake of last weekend’s shootings in Ohio and Texas.
“That sounds like Potomac two-step to me,” Mr. Ryan said Friday when asked about Mr. McConnell’s statement that background checks will be “front and center” in the coming debate.
“Their playbook — Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the National Rifle Association — their playbook has always been, how do we slow-walk this, how do we mealy-mouth it until it goes away, until the news cycle changes,” Mr. Ryan said on CNN’s “New Day.”
“I think that’s what Trump’s saying — ’Oh, we’ll have this conversation’; ’We don’t want to have it now’; ’We don’t want to call the Senate back to deal with this now,’ ” said Mr. Ryan, a congressman from Ohio. “That’s the problem that the American people are fed up with, and now people are starting to pay attention.”
Mr. McConnell told a Kentucky radio station on Thursday that background checks and “red flag” laws that temporarily suspend the gun rights of individuals judged to be dangerous will be “front and center” in the debate when lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., in September.
Mr. Ryan had joined a caravan of gun control activists who made a road trip on Thursday from Ohio to Louisville in an effort to pressure Mr. McConnell to act.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.