Despite what you may have heard on Wednesday, President Trump is definitely not coming after your guns no matter how amenable he appeared to be during an on-camera bipartisan meeting at the White House on gun control proposals.
(He isn’t, right?)
While talking with lawmakers, Trump appeared to disagree with Vice President Mike Pence, who wanted to ensure that no one’s rights were infringed on with respect to gun control legislation.
“Take the firearms first and then go to court,” Trump said. “Because that’s another system — a lot of times by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court, to get the due process procedures.”
(He didn’t just say what I think he did, did he?)
He continued. “I like taking the guns early. Like, in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida. He had a lot of firearms, they saw everything. To go to court would have taken a long time. You could do exactly what you’re saying but take the guns first, go through due process second.”
These comments were intriguing to some, mainly his Democratic critics who favor stricter gun control measures, but alarming to his fellow Republicans in the House and Senate.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., immediately criticized the president for his remarks, saying in a statement, “Strong leaders don’t automatically agree with the last thing that was said to them. We have the Second Amendment and due process of law for a reason. We’re not ditching any Constitutional protections simply because the last person the President talked to today doesn’t like them.”
National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch rebuked the president as well, telling Fox News host Martha MacCallum, “The NRA is also going to protect due process for innocent Americans, and that is an approach that we are going to hold to. Due process must be respected … it is a foundational principle of this country.”
In order to calm the fears of many, remember in early January when President Trump hosted a similar on-camera bipartisan meeting focusing on immigration? It featured Trump randomly agreeing with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., over pushing through a “clean” DACA bill. That obviously never happened despite the concerns of many in his base.
We’ve come to learn that this is just the way Trump is. He says things he doesn’t really mean in order to be civil while discussing tough issues with people who obviously disagree with him. He’s certainly not going to go after gun owners and circumvent people’s rights to due process to seize them. That will never fly.
However, it’s actually one of President Trump’s better qualities to give the impression that he’s open to hearing ideas from the other side. Too often in our society do we find ourselves witnessing debates over common political disagreements devolve into a throw down of fisticuffs.
Despite Trump’s rhetoric on Twitter or the campaign trail, his on-camera bipartisan meetings actually make him seem more approachable than the mainstream media would suggest.
So is it bad to appear amenable to ideas that contradict your beliefs? I’d say it’s just common courtesy. There are legitimate criticisms to be made about President Trump, but focusing on how he deals with lawmakers who disagree with him isn’t one.
Siraj Hashmi is a commentary video editor and writer for the Washington Examiner.
