Trump, Lawmakers Meet For Surreal Discussion About Gun Control

The White House reality show must goes on.

During a televised meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House, President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to broadly support a wide range of initiatives aimed at preventing future mass shootings. They ranged from endorsing stronger background checks to implementing “offensive” capabilities inside schools.

One of the most striking moments came when it became increasingly clear that Trump was unfamiliar with the contents of the Manchin-Toomey bill, which famously failed to pass the Senate in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. The 2013 legislation, which focused on expanding background checks and was strongly supported by then-President Barack Obama, marks the closest Congress has come in recent years to passing meaningful gun-control legislation. The speech Obama gave in response to the bill’s failure is regarded as his angriest public display. 

But on Wednesday, Trump appeared to blame his predecessor for the bill’s failure. It was just one of several times the president seemed to suggest that Obama didn’t push hard enough on gun control while in office. Trump also accused Toomey, who was in the room for Wednesday’s meeting, of being “afraid of the NRA” for not including language to raise the minimum age to purchase certain weapons.

At another point, Trump said he supported illegally seizing firearms from potential killers first, and then dealing with the due process. “I like taking the guns early,” he said in response to Vice President Mike Pence’s suggestion to do the exact opposite.

Trump later raised eyebrows when he suggested that a ban on assault weapons should also be included in the Manchin-Toomey bill. The surprising proposal was reminiscent of the January meeting at which lawmakers from both parties came together with the president to talk about immigration, and Trump agreed with Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s push for a clean bill on DACA. (Trump, of course, quickly backtracked, and later sought to kill a bipartisan bill many observers considered Congress’ best shot at a DACA resolution.)

Nevertheless, Feinstein, who was sitting next to Trump at Wednesday’s meeting, looked quite pleased with Trump’s recommendation on assault weapons.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate