laws. a source tells cnn that mitch mcconnell has privately expressed openness to raising the age to buy them but he won t say so publicly. it won t surprise you to know that i m not going to sit here and try to negotiate the deal with all you guys. we re waiting to see if we can get an outcome that directly relates to the problem that brought the issue to the fore. daniella diaz is live on capitol hill for us. what are republicans concerned about, are there divisions among them on this issue? reporter: there is divisions about what they actually want to see on any sort of gun safety legislation that could pass through the senate. there is still the more conservative senators like senator ted cruz and ron johnson that don t want to pass any legislation and wouldn t support any sort of bill in the senate. of course there are negotiatneg, john cornyn of texas being one of them, that is trying to reach some sort of deal to get ten republicans on board to support any gun sa
powerful republican in the senate is open to raising the minimum age to buy a semi-automatic weapon from 18 to 21. he has said that in private, but mitch mcconnell has not and won t, it seems, say it in public. it is highly unlikely that it will be part of any agreement on gun safety as talks intensify between democrats and republicans. two weeks ago republican senate cynthia lieu mass of wyoming said she doubted any ideas to curb gun violence would be welcomed in her pro-gun state but now she s signaling an openness to finding legislative solutions because her office has been flooded with calls from con sit stants demanding an end to mass shooting. let s bring in arlette saenz and sunlen serfaty about this. let s talk about why discussions stand. there s optimism from both sides at this moment but they have not brokered a deal, have not had an agreement on some of these issues and that is what today is all about. today they have to sit down as negotiators, narrow their d
world, it is wednesday, june 8th. cnn has learned the most prominent republican in the senate supports raising the minimum age to buy a semi-automatic weapon like an ar-15 from 18 to 216789 mitch mcconnell has said that in private we are told, but he won t say it in public, and it is not likely to be part of any agreement on gun safety as talks heat up between democrats and republicans. republican senator cynthia lummis of wyoming said two weeks ago that she doubted that any plan to curb violence would be welcome in her pro-gun state. now she s signaling an openness to finding legislative solutions because her office has been flooded with calls from constituents demanding an end to mass shootings. let s bring in cnn s pamela brown about some of the latest reporting we re hearing on these negotiations and where this discussion goes from here. what are you learning, pam? so i m learning, me and my colleague manu raju have learned that the senate minority leader mitch mcco
constituents demanding an end to mass shootings. as negotiations continue, cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju pressed lawmakers about ar-15s and why people need them and he got a range of responses. here it is. why do you think that people need to have ar-15s in this country in. you re talking about a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. people who are law abiding citizens are in good mental health and aren t a threat to the public. in my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and other types of varmints, so i think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them. that s used for sporting events, for sporting activities all the time. why not raise the age to 21 for people buying semi-automatic rifles? we re talking about a lot of things, and what we re talking about most are background checks, juvenile records, the areas where we can get consensus, that came into the discussion. but right now we re trying to work on things w
another witness announced for tomorrow s primetime hearing. and new reporting on how donald trump had the secret service scrambling on the day of the attack. plus, we ve got the top headlines from last night s midterm election primaries that may serve as a warning to democrats. good morning and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, june 8th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. senators had hoped to reach a bipartisan deal on gun safety by the end of this week, but nbc news has learned that that timetable may slip. perhaps into next week. senators have hit a snag on how to expand background checks. two people close to the talks tell nbc news at issue is whether to add waiting periods for 18 to 21-year-olds and to enable the fbi to conduct background checks on their juvenile records. a spokesman for republican senator john cornyn of texas said he is not considering waiting periods but does support the provision on the juvenile records. democrats, howev