judiciary committee. thank you so much for being with us this morning. ten republicans have signed on to the framework. how confident are you that they will be there once the legislative text comes out? i feel very positively about it. i can tell you there are other republican senators who are taking a hard look at it. i hope we can get more than ten to join the democrats in this effort. the more bipartisan, the better. you hope. are you confident? well, i can t say at this point. i don t want to overreach. but i ll tell you that these ten have shown extraordinary leadership. they re going to hear from their constituents in a positive way and i hope others will join them. you know some of the gun groups are lobbying already against the framework. what impact do you think that will have? it is going to have some impact. it is expected, they aren t going to go down without a fight. they have been for almost 30 years in terms of the reach
we had a member of congress vote for a ban of military style weapons. he easily got re-elected. the florida legislature, one of the most right-wing in america, passed gun safety laws. they weren t penalized. i mean, it s just it s garbage that is spewed out by the nra and by other gun groups, isn t it? well, listen, i use joe manchin as an example. in 2013, joe manchin represented one of the most republican states in the nation, west virginia. he led the compromise that would have, at the time, expanded background checks to all commercial sales. there were a whole bunch of democrats who represented much less republican states who voted against that compromise. they lost. joe manchin won in that state. pat toomey, who was part of that compromise, won in a, you know, pennsylvania, a state where democrats were doing very well during the time of his
debate, which was very low on the list of priorities, is suddenly rising up to its highest number, too, in some polls, which shows that people are paying attention. this often happens in the wake of shootings, then it tends to wane quickly. we ll keep an eye on whether or not this has resonance long term as a political topic. you know from talking to the white house, talking to democrats on capitol hill, they think the combination of the abortion ruling with the gun debate might give them some hopes of reversing what looks like a red wave they think will probably hit and cost them big time in the house, the majority, possibly the senate majority. interested in that topic, that debate. we ll see what happens in the senate. as you know, if anything gets done, it ll be a very narrow bill. it s going to be focused on red flag laws and maybe giving money to the states that make that more operable. some background checks, tightening up of that law. nothing sweeping like you saw out of the ho
that is pushed by these gun groups. obviously, the money is important. but i don t think it matters as much as the political dysfunction that we have. when 80% of the country wants to move in one direction, and 80% wants to go in one direction and republicans refused to go there, it is less about money. the democrats have plenty of money to spend on campaigns. there is plenty of money to go around and win these things, to do these things. we just have not been compelling enough. the voters have engaged enough on this issue. i think it s all responsibility as voters. but number two, i also follow the politicians. there has only been one politician that ran on this issue solely. and that was in georgia, lucy mcbath, in georgia. she ran on this issue because she had a child that was killed by a gun. she ran on this issue solely in a swing district in georgia. and she won. i think that politicians and people running for office need
particularly moderate democrats like joe manchin who have raised concerns in the past about atf nominees who they perceived to be, you know, too much too much in the vein of trying to restrict access to guns and limit people s gun rights. so if the white house sees that they have all democrats on board, this is someone that s likely to not get a whole lot of knee-jerk opposition, particularly from those members of congress that are most influenced by the nra, they may be able to move on this very quickly. if not, then it s going to take more time. but the white house knows their first nominee failed. they want to go into this being able to succeed on the second nominee, especially as these gun groups, these gun violence groups are really saying that it s inexcusable that this agency has not had a confirmed agency leader for so long. josh, chuck, thank you both for being with us. we turn now to the other big