it took hurt. for people to come out and put pressure on the president. particularly when it was parkland. we heard the same thing about background checks. but the nra, the nra stepped in and said no, no, no. the nra has the president. they ve got the m ares republic the senate. nothing s going to happen. we ve been dealing with issues of guns and mass shootings for decades now. this is an epidemic for real. and the problem is when you keep talking about it, and i ve been at the white house for 22 years. they were talking about closing the gun show loophole during bill clinton s time. it feels it s accelerated. the mass shootings. it has. and you have hr-8 in that house that will not get support in the senate. mitch mcconnell is running for office and that is a death nail for him. so the talk is going to happen. they re talking. there s no action. angela, i know this will appeal to you.
networks, and jeff mason covers the white house for reuters. hi, brooke. when you hear that these talks are informal and not substantive, according to one official. how serious are these conversations? not substantive is the key piece right there. we ve been hearing about these talks forever. i ve been in washington for 22 years, there were shootings, columbine, so many things that happened. they were talking about closing the gun show loophole. now hr-8 that is in the house, is to close the gun show loophole as well as the online loophole for buying guns. we re talking about assault weapons bans. it s a lot about a lot that s not moving. the problem is people are dying and hr-8 has passed in the house, but the senate won t do it. not only that, you have the nra that is telling the president no. remember parkland?
official said daughter and adviser ivanka trump is sounding out lawmakers on the phone, unclear how much pull ivanka trump has on capitol hill. democrats and republicans are still miles apart on this very critical issue of gun control. wolf. yes, they are, jim acosta, thank you for that report. let s turn back to shooting massacres in dayton and el paso. joining us congressman john beyer in virginia. speaking out today about the push for gun control. you ve been a leader on these issues. thanks for coming? thank you very much, wolf. you ve heard about the two mass shootings. the president, mitch mcconnell the majority leader and other republicans want to do background checks. do you buy that? i d love to buy that because this is something we passed hr-8 in the house, which is universal background checks. has the support of 95% of americans. we have a good chance of passing it in the senate if mitch mcconnell will allow it to come
to background checks legislation, bear in mind in the house we passed that legislation exactly six months ago. i understand, hr-8 and 11, 12. i hear you, but should you be there the first thing go ahead. the first thing is for mitch mcconnell to call back the senate and move your background checks bill, which i believe does have a chance of passing the senate. maybe not the 60 votes, but certainly clearing the 51 vote threshold. that s been the main focus. i would be willing to go back to the house i m have philadelphia and i know you brought up the mass shootings that happened in el paso and dayton, and understandably. so let s not forget that right here in my home town of philadelphia where i represent, 12 people were shot over this weekend. so the philadelphias of the country, the chicagos, the other places where we have a slow-rolling mass shooting every single week also need attention,
el paso, texas as well. this is a time now that we all need to come together. when you think of what the american citizens want, more than 90% of them want us to make sure we have background checks. when you look at what s happened this time with the polls that were taken, even 50% of some republicans are saying they would support actions. it s time for us to be intentional and this has to be urgent. we can t do business as usual. we can t woucount on this presit but i m going to say members of congress and those in the state legislature, we need to come together and put a stop to this. i m so proud that the democrats, one of the first things we did when we took back the majority just in full control about seven or eight months ago. hr-8 to pass the background check. we picked up some republicans.