Universal background checks for gun sales are just about universally popular, so House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer let Donald Trump know that half measures “will not get the job done.” Politico’s take? The two Democratic leaders are “complicating delicate negotiations between the president and a group of senators.”
That warning came as Trump continues to dither between doing what close to 90% of Americans want and doing what the NRA wants. Such a tough, tough call to make. But Republicans say—in translation—that calling for a meaningful bill will endanger the chances of passing a useless bill with the name universal background checks, and therefore is a very bad thing.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, nominally Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey are trying to negotiate background checks legislation, and Murphy recently claimed that Trump “clearly understands the politics of background checks.” But yet the issue hasn’t been resolved, and of course, with Trump, no deal can be seen as done until his signature is actually on the paper—at a minimum. So why would Pelosi and Schumer put on their kid gloves in talking about it?