Donald Trump on Wednesday: Let's do comprehensive gun law reform. Senate Republicans: Yeah, no. Not a chance. Though congressional Republicans were reasonably polite about what must have been a slow-rolling nightmare for them (“Did he just berate us for being afraid of the NRA? Did he just say he was open to an assault weapons ban? Did he just advocate police taking people’s guns without due process? What is even happening?”) they also made it clear that virtually none of what Trump called for has a snowball’s chance:
“It would be nice if we could add everything on to it,” [Trump] told lawmakers who met with him in the Cabinet Room, even suggesting a name for the measure: the U.S. Background Check Bill.
But Cornyn poured cold water on the idea of moving a comprehensive bill, cautioning it’s “easier said than done.”
Republicans were on message: they might possibly be able to pass the Fix NICS bill to improve the federal background check system. One unnamed Republican suggested an explanation for why they find it so easy to ignore what Trump says:
One Republican senator who requested anonymity expressed doubt that Trump fully understands the Toomey-Manchin proposal and predicted he would change his mind on comprehensive background checks.
“Do you think he has any idea what’s in Manchin-Toomey?” the lawmaker asked. “As he gets more information he may not hold to that. What makes you think Manchin-Toomey will get more votes than it did before.”
A Republican Congress that’s looking to talk about one small piece of legislation and run out the clock until they can get away with doing nothing, and a Republican president who doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is flipping, flopping and twisting so quickly it’s impossible to count how many times he’s changed position. The only answer is to keep fighting and to set the conditions for creating real policy change as soon as we’ve achieved some electoral change.