President Obama is relying on Senate Democrats to secure something that has eluded him for years — any win on gun control.
Obama essentially threw up his hands a year ago while responding to the mass shooting at a black church in South Carolina. But this week demonstrated the extent to which he considers himself helpless.
As a bipartisan group of senators was working on a compromise that would grant him his scaled-down gun request — barring people on the no-fly list from buying guns — not only did he stay out of negotiations, he left town.
He was already on the way out as the Senate gave pro-gun control Democrats a glimmer of hope, when a new compromise bill survived a test vote in the Senate. And the White House had said the day before that Obama wasn’t involved in the Senate effort, the only place left where a compromise could emerge.
“What we’re working to determine right now is whether or not the current proposal can be shaped to effectively accomplish the goal that it … sets out to achieve,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday about GOP Sen. Susan Collins’ effort to craft a “no guns for terrorists” bill that enough Republicans will find sufficiently palatable to pass.
“We’ll continue to remain in touch with members of Congress, [but] I don’t know that the president has been involved in any of those conversations in the last 24 hours.”
When House Democrats began their 26-hour takeover of the floor to protest Republican leaders’ unwillingness to bring similar legislation up for a vote, Obama tweeted his encouragement, but that was it from the White House.
Obama acknowledged in January when he issued 10 more executive orders that he had reached the end of his one-way road.
“And although it is my strong belief that for us to get our complete arm around the problem Congress needs to act, what I asked my team to do is to see what more we could do to strengthen our enforcement and prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands to make sure that criminals, people who are mentally unstable, those who could pose a danger to themselves or others are less likely to get them,” Obama said in announcing the roll out.
Obama and Earnest admit that all the president can do now is try shaming Republicans into acting.
“I would anticipate that you’re going to continue to see the president speak out publicly with passion on this issue,” Earnest said when asked in January what more Obama can do to reduce gun violence.
Obama was clearly deflated when his 23 executive orders and three presidential memos responding to the Newton, Conn., massacre ultimately went nowhere on Capitol Hill, despite initial willingness by Republicans to strengthen gun laws.
He frequently shows his exasperation with their inflexibility on the matter, regularly remarking about how if the murder of 20 first graders won’t make them budge, he doesn’t know what will.
As Obama departed Washington for the West Coast, neither he nor administration officials signaled that when he returns Monday, he plans to take a more hands-on approach with lawmakers.
