The National Rifle Association, which lacks a majority on the Supreme Court to protect gun rights, is going national with its fight for President Trump’s nominee Neil Gorsuch, vowing to do whatever it takes to overcome a first-ever filibuster against a court pick.
“We don’t have five votes on the Supreme Court right now for the basic right to own a firearm,” said Chris W. Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist and executive director of the group’s Institute for Legislative Action.
NRA pressures 4 gun state Democrats to back Gorsuch in $1M TV campaign https://t.co/mha0azQaqq via @DCExaminer
— Chris Cox (@ChrisCoxNRA) March 27, 2017
“We have to deal with the here and now and do everything that we can no matter what it takes to confirm Neil Gorsuch,” he added.
Cox’s shop has invested well over $1 million in the fight for Gorsuch, targeting gun state Democrats who are on the fence, including Montana’s Jon Tester, Missouri’s Claire McCaskill and Indiana’s Joe Donnelly. Two others that faced NRA pressure, North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, have said they will buck Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and vote for Gorsuch.
Late Friday, McCaskill said she would vote against Gorsuch.
That effort comes after the NRA made the Supreme Court a huge issue in the 2016 presidential election. Polls showed that voters were very focused on the court, and Cox said that Democrats blocking Gorsuch don’t accept their loss.
Cox said that the NRA-ILA effort is national now and the group’s membership is being tasked to urge Senate approval of the judge who is backed in virtually every public opinion poll and the American Bar Association.
“This should be a very easy, no brainer. It’s a shame that the Democrats playing pure partisan politics on it,” said Cox. “It’s really a sad day in American history when the Democrats filibuster a man they know is a good man who is more than qualified,” he added.
He has urged Senate GOP leaders to use options to shut down Schumer’s filibuster promise and he believes that when a vote takes place, as early as next Friday, that it will result in a victory.
“Neil Gorsuch is going to be on the court next week one way or another,” he vowed to Secrets.
Desperate to stop Gorsuch, some Democrats have suggested that Trump never should have been allowed to pick a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia because his presidency is in jeopardy over the Russia affair. Liberal groups charge that the election was a fraud and Trump is not a legitimate president.
Cox scoffed at the suggestion, noting that some on the GOP side said former President Obama wasn’t legitimately elected, but the Republicans did not stop him from putting two justices on the court.
“That just proves my point that this is partisan politics. That’s like saying that Barack Obama shouldn’t have gotten his Supreme Court picks because there was question about whether he was legitimate president. That’s pretty rich coming from Senate Democrats,” said Cox.
“The legitimacy of his presidency didn’t prevent him from moving forward and being able to put two liberals on the court and this is a combination of pure partisan politics or a refusal to accept the outcome of the elections or possibly both,” he added.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
