[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 176 (Tuesday, November 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Gun Legislation

  Mr. President, on guns, on August 5, days after mass shootings in El 
Paso and Dayton, President Trump declared that ``we cannot let those 
killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain.'' He said, 
``Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong 
background checks.''
  Those were the words of President Trump. A few weeks later, Leader 
McConnell promised that a debate on background checks would be ``front 
and center'' in the Senate after the summer work period. These were 
Leader McConnell's words. He said, ``What we can't do is fail to pass 
something,'' he said.
  Well, it has been 3 months since those statements. Leader McConnell's 
Senate has not only failed to pass them, it has not even debated some 
of them. And then on Friday, the Washington Post released a story that 
all but confirms the worst fear of families torn apart by guns 
violence--the headline of the Washington Post: ``Trump abandons 
proposing ideas to curb gun violence, after saying he would, following 
mass shootings.''
  According to the Washington Post, the President has abandoned his 
brief flirtation with supporting expanded background checks because his 
advisers believe it will hurt his chances of reelection, ``a reversal 
from the summer when the President insisted he would offer policies to 
curb firearm deaths.''
  Maybe it is not surprising with this President--it isn't 
unfortunately; he goes back on his word day after day--but it is 
profoundly disappointing. Democrats, despite our skepticism, tried to 
work in good faith with our Republican colleagues to respond to the 
tragedies in El Paso and Dayton. Many of my colleagues, Senator Murphy 
and Senator Manchin and others, worked with Republican Senators and 
ferried back and forth to the White House to find a proposal that could 
become law that would save American lives. We gave the White House 
every chance to get to ``yes.''
  But despite those efforts, Leader McConnell has not moved even one 
gun safety bill to the floor, and President Trump is opposing votes on 
any--any--potential compromise, just like on infrastructure, just like 
on immigration reform, just like on a myriad of other issues, President 
Trump would rather do nothing to help the American people because it 
would upset political allies like the NRA.
  He will make bold and sometimes surprising promises in the heat of 
the moment. When there was a huge pressure to do something about 
background checks because of the shootings across the country, he said 
he would, but then this man who tries to portray himself as a tough guy 
backs off when lobbyists say he can't do it. That doesn't show 
strength. It shows weakness and shows a lack of candor and honesty to 
the American people. It shows he is using the American people for his 
own political purposes, which he does over and over again.
  Only time will tell how many lives it will take before President 
Trump and the congressional Republicans come to their senses and work 
with us to finally do something about the epidemic of gun violence in 
America.