Donald Trump charged Monday that President Obama isn’t working hard enough to get Congress to agree to some path forward on gun control, and suggested Obama prefers to dodge Congress on guns and other issues because he doesn’t like many people.
“Why isn’t he getting Republicans and Democrats together and doing something, instead of always … he keeps signing executive orders. He doesn’t meet with people,” Trump said on CNN.
“I don’t know, he doesn’t like people I guess,” he said.
“Don’t you think he should do this with Congress? Because I don’t think he works very hard at it,” Trump added. “I don’t hear of massive meetings taking place where they’re all coming in and they’re discussing guns and they’re discussing what to do.”
“All I hear is, he’s going to sign an executive order,” Trump concluded. “I don’t know that he even tried.”
Gun control has been a particularly sticky issue for Congress, and efforts to boost background checks and take other steps have failed to win support from Republicans and many Democrats.
In 2013, Obama approved 23 executive actions on gun control, which fell far short of the background check requirement that he wants Congress to pass. This week, Obama is expected to announce additional steps aimed at broadening the small gun dealers that would have to be licensed, and making it harder for people to dodge background check requirements when buying a gun from a small dealer.
But Trump argued that if Obama can negotiate with Iran, he should be able to negotiate with Congress on guns.
“Regardless of what is proposed, this is proposed through an executive order, and it shouldn’t be,” he said.
