First it was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who opined that impeachment really isn’t a valid reason for President Trump not moving forward with the push for gun control. Apparently congressional Democrats didn’t think there would be any legislative consequences to their attempt to remove him from office.
Now, it’s the Dems’ media stenographers who want to try to shame Trump into giving Democrats something they really, really want despite their existential attack on his presidency.
They apparently had him leaning their way…at least on a red flag incentive bill and some form of background checks. But now . . .
Two days after Barr’s (trial baloon “idea”) meetings, news broke that President Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a “favor”: to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over the latter’s work at a Ukrainian energy company.
In the days that followed, Politico reported, the senators working on bipartisan gun reform began to get radio silence from the White House about their plans. Then, on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump.
Now, the president is openly using impeachment as an excuse to bat away expectations that the White House will support gun-control legislation.
“She’s not interested in guns,” he said Wednesday at the United Nations. “Nancy Pelosi is not interested in guns and gun protection [or] gun safety.”
If Pelosi was interested in gun reform, Trump implied, she’d be focusing on legislative priorities instead of an impeachment inquiry. Never mind that, shortly before Trump spoke that afternoon, House Democrats held a hearing to debate banning assault weapons.
On Wednesday afternoon, during a press briefing at the UN, Trump turned to Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, “who I’ve been dealing with on guns.” Murphy’s now “too busy wasting time on the witch hunt” to legislate, Trump said.
– Morgan Baskin in Trump Is Using Impeachment as an Excuse to Not Pass Gun Safety Laws