i know there have been conversations, chris murphy has talked to the president even. so there is a package that s being discussed. but is this going to be any different? you couldn t feel the fierce and urgency there? i almost fell asleep during that interview. there was not a it s not news that republicans have never felt a sense of urgency about passing gun control legislation. but what stands out about this instance, at least from our reporting is that they re not dismissive of it. if you re a gun control advocate that s a victory in some respects. remember, there was a moment a couple weeks ago where the president had a call with wane lapierre, the ceo of the nra. it came out he was against background checks. the white house actually told our reporters that they felt that the nra was spinning that call. they were upset with the nra for getting in front of the call.
betsy, how much of this has trickled down to what alex was saying that people show up and do what the nra asked them to do? are they starting to get nervous? look. it s hard to see how far it s trickled out. and there s a lot of skepticism with the mainstream media. they view the reporters who cover these issues as generally hostile to what they care about. as far as an audience, it s more skeptical. at the same time, of course, it s frustrating board members. alan west who is a conservative fan favorite is a member of nra board and has called for wane lapierre to be deposed. and if you look at the comments on the youtube gun pages you ll see a ton of friction and ton of criticism particularly of nra ceo wayne lapierre. alex, you write that this goes beyond republicans.
gun rights. this year they were vastly outspent by people on the other side of their issue 37 quote, nra seeks distance from russia as investigations heat up. this is from the new york times this week, quote, when a delegation of high-profile donors, boosters and board members from the nra travelled to russia in 2015, they visited a gun factory in moscow, took in a ballet and met with members of vladimir putin s inner circle but now the nra is seeking to distance itself from that trip after revolutions that a russian woman who helped arrange, maria butina, was trying to infiltrate the organization. telling lawyers this week that the chief executive wane lapierre opposed that trip. he forbade them to go to russia. oh, i was also opposed to the russia trip, just like wayne was. yes, we both new it was a terrible idea. the times rather dryly notes,
quote, given mr. lapierre s power within the organization, it s unclear how such a trip would have proceeded at all despite his opposition to it. you can understand why the nra might now want to disavow that 2015 moscow trip. and the public narrative of why they took the trip was always weird enough. i mean, the narrative about this trip was that the nra guys went to moscow to make connections with a russian gun rights group that mysteriously had been blessed by vladimir putin s political party. now, in reality, here on earth one, there is no gun rights movement in russia, certainly not one sanctioned by the powers that be, right? not one that would be headed up by high-ranking members of putin s political party like the people who hosted the nra delegation in russia. so the cover story never made sense in the first place. and of course now we know for certain that the trip was a russian intelligence operation. because the woman who ran that
i wouldn t nund estimate the support for the nra. they say strong membership base that s energized in a lot of single voters and corporate america is going to try to do whatever they can to appeal to any large block like the nra. i do think it was significant that today that those organizations chose to sever their support. i would ghaes very few, if any, of those members are teenagers and young people. the nra s problem is the next generation and the generation after that who ve grown up having do these mass shooter drills are not going to support this extremist agenda of the nra and the entire culture is moving in the parkland kids direction and away from wane lapierre and company. let s hope. thank you so much. good luck this week and everybody watch joy because joy s the best and not just on weekends. thank you, deer. thank you for coming on as well ar elise. and up next, as we saw today, trump has full command of his base so how do you beat him? account answer be a moderate