republican votes on background checks are toomey and illinois senator mark kirk. they re the only republicans. what are the prospects for getting something passed in the senate after all the talk? senator angus king is an independent senator from maine who caucuses with the democrats. senator king, you re an independent guy. i want your views on what you see and smell on the floor of the united states senate. chuck todd said a lot of these senators, 31 of them, basically are afraid to even have a debate because when they vote to have a debate, the nra says, you re one of the bad guys. well, i think you got to break that down into two issues. number one, you guys have looked for the last five minutes at the glass as half empty. 68 senators voted on one of the most controversial and contentious issues in recent american life. 68 senators voted yes knowing that the nra was going to score that vote. and i think that s a pretty positive development. when i went in there today to vote, i
this critical procedural vote. martha? martha: interesting. so no doubt the nra is not happy with any of this, right, mike? reporter: well, that s right. and i am told that they were consulted throughout the process. they were a part of the discussions with senators toomey and manchin, but they call this effort misguided. and chris cox in a letter to senators wrote, quote: as we have noted priestly, expanding welcomed checks become checks will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools. it s expected this will clear the procedural hurdle, but still a long way to go for gun control on capitol hill. martha: both manchin and toomey have a high rating with the nra, and that s one of the reasons this has gotten credible attention in terms of where it goes. mike, thank you so much. reporter: thank you. gregg: one of the central sticking points, of course, is on background checks. a record 19.5 million background checks were actually performed in 2012, that s nearly
cpi idea, even if people don t like it, what it did was it split the republican party which is what you want to do in politics. so yesterday you saw them all over the place. some of them saying, well, of course, we have to embrace this, we re for entitlement reform. others trying to pander to seniors. and he s going to be in a much stronger position on the budget because of the budget he just proposed and we ll get something solid, if not a grand bargain, at least a good bargain. on immigration, the gang of eight in the senate is moving forward some kind of an agreement there which i think will pass the house. the republicans learned from the last election if they don t get right on this issue, they are going the way of the whig party. they must do something to address their problem with latinos. obama will get most of the credit but republicans will get some. on guns with this recent agreement between senators toomey and manchin, that also
guns don t kill people, people kill people? the logical result of that is, let s do background checks and keep the guns out of the hands of people who shouldn t have them. this registry thing is the best argument they have. frankly, i m disappointed in senator cruz. he s a really senator guy. there s nothing about registries. in fact, toomey and manchin have negotiated this. we ve been having background checks for 25 years and the records are kept at the gun shops. there s no federal record of them. there s not a federal registry. everybody understands that what the issue there is. and he, you know, he lumped me in i guess with everybody else because i m supporting background checks saying what they really want is registration. that s not what i want. i want a background check so the people who shouldn t have guns don t get them. and it s people with criminal records, people who are prone to violence, with mental illness. yeah. and so that s a i guess the classic term is red herr
resolved. yet right now the only solid republican votes on background checks are toomey and illinois senator mark kirk. they re the only republicans. what are the prospects for getting something passed in the senate after all the talk? senator angus king is an independent senator from maine who caucuses with the democrats. senator king, you re an independent guy. i want your views on what you see and smell on the floor of the united states senate. chuck todd said a lot of these senators, 31 of them, basically are afraid to even have a debate because when they vote to have a debate, the nra says, you re one of the bad guys. well, i think you got to break that down into two issues. number one, you guys have looked for the last five minutes at the glass as half empty. 68 senators voted on one of the most controversial and contentious issues in recent american life. 68 senators voted yes knowing that the nra was going to score that vote. and i think that s a pretty positive development.