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Transcripts for CNN The Situation Room 20130402 21:04:00

Harder it gets in congress. we ve argued this and argued that and been distracted by this and that and do nothing, do absolutely nothing. and i think we need to be careful with that. a leader of one gun control advocacy group called the nra event, quote, ironic and hypocrite call noting the gun lobby opposes universal background checks but supports them for school security guards. president obama will be campaigning for new restrictions on firearms at events in colorado, tomorrow, and connecticut next week he goes to the scene of the shooting at the movie theater in aurora, colorado. seems like an uphill struggle for the president and his supporters on this issue but clearly he is not giving up. that s right. he is not giving up because this would be a major political defeat for the president were this to go down. one thing we have heard throughout this process over the last several months is something called the newtown effect. that effect was much stronger in the days and wee ....

Us Congress , Gun Control Advocacy Group , President Obama , Background Checks , School Security Guards , Gun Lobby , Major Civil Rights Issue , Fort Hood Shooting , Appendecto Connecticut , Movie Theater , White House , Newtown Effect ,

Transcripts for CNN The Situation Room 20130402 22:20:00

It is still up to congress to approve the money for this project. but it would bring together some of the best minds in the private sector and government, and the president s bioethics committee will make sure this research is done in a proper way. wolf? we waste so much money on stupid stuff, it would be good to spend some money and maybe really learn something about this critically important issue. the potential, i mean, that s what everybody is hanging their hope on, the potential, if you can just think about it, the possibility of finding a cure for alzheimer s, for parkinson s, epilepsy, even curing blindness and hearing loss and so forth. so they are just at the infancy in this type of research, and so in that sense it s a sense of excitement. i m excited. i am, too. thanks very much. if you thought we were done with with the michael jackson trials, there may be the most sensational trial yet. also, the rapper jay-z ....

President Obama , Us Congress , Mo Ney , Bioethics Committee , Major Civil Rights Issue , Parkinson S , Hearing Loss , Cure For Alzheimer S , Michael Jackson , Jay Z ,

Transcripts for CNN The Situation Room 20130402 21:50:00

Republican. mark kirk of illinois becoming the second republican senator to take that stand. a social moderate he made a dramatic return to capitol hill after spending a year recovering from a stroke. that helped prompt this powerfu climbed the capital steps in january, i promised myself that i would return to the senate with an open mind and greater respect for others. same-sex couples should have the right to civil marriage. our time on this earth is limited. i know that better than most. life comes down to who you love, and who loves you back. government has no place in the middle. last month senator rob portman of ohio, another social conservative, announced his support for same-sex marriage, saying he was swayed on the issue by his gay son. 48 of 55 democratic senators have endorsed same-sex marriage. ari, do you think more republicans are going to follow these other two republican senators lead? only slowly, wolf. ....

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Transcripts for CNN The Situation Room 20130402 21:17:00

There are a lot of skittish democrats, the biggest obstacle to the president right now. even if he could get them he could still have republicans to convince. in a way you can t fault the president for keeping up his campaigning if he truly believes in this because on this and other issues he needs to prove to his own base he ll continue to fight even when the numbers aren t there. if 90% of the american public supports universal background checks, 8% oppose it. why is it so difficult to get that through congress? welcome to special interest politics and this is an issue, much of what we talked about as a democrat, republican, partisan polarization. when it comes to guns it is more regional and cultural. you were talking to asa hutchinson from arkansas. there are people in arkansas who might agree with having armed guards at school while mayor bloomberg in new york would say that is crazy. some of this is a partisan break down and some is the people who right now say they won t go ....

President Obama , Major Civil Rights Issue , Us Congress , Background Checks , Partisan Polarization , Asa Hutchinson , Sandy Hook Elementary School , New York City , Assault Weapons Ban ,

Transcripts for CNN The Situation Room 20130402 21:52:00

And a split among republicans. there are at least seven democratic senators, gone na, who still have not endorlsed same-sex marriage. i ll put their names up on the screen so the viewers can see them and their pictures. matt what do you think, are they going to start turning around pretty soon as well? we ll see, wolf. we ve seen so much evolution on this issue. this is the first major civil rights issue where i ve seen the public shift over the last seven, eight years. eight democrats came onboard over the last seven days. yesterday, tom harper, from delaware, mr. casey from pennsylvania two days ago. so we ll see how they will evolve over the next couple days, weeks, months, years. we ll see. donna, ari, guys, thanks very much for coming in. at the top of the hour, if ....

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