Rep. Eric Swalwell said he is confident Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not be in power to stop gun control bills from being brought to the Senate floor after the 2020 election.
McConnell is up for reelection and is running for his seventh term.
“How would you pass any gun control legislation, as president, if Mitch McConnell has control of the Senate?” CNN’s Ana Cabrera asked last Saturday.
“I used to think that, too, until I saw the Parkland generation and the Moms Demand Action and the Giffords Group and the March for Our Lives, go to the ballot box this last election and they beat 17 candidates NRA-endorsed members of Congress,” the presidential candidate said.
“And so the message I take away from that is we should not be afraid to address this issue and negotiate up. So let’s beat Mitch McConnell and let’s talk about gun safety in Kentucky and Arizona and Maine and all these other states, because the moms are with us. And so we have a lot of momentum to seize right now. So I’m not even accepting the premise that Mitch McConnell is going to be there,” he said.
The California Democrat then called for Senate Democrats to force a vote on the gun control bills that have passed the House. Swalwell added while he does not own any firearms, he hosted a shooting range trip with veterans in his district to talk about mental health.
Swalwell, who has made increasing gun control his main issue for his presidential campaign, has been polling at 0% after the first set of Democratic debates.
McConnell has taken pride in stopping bills he considers to be radical that have passed the House, embracing the nickname “The Grim Reaper,” given to him by Democrats.
