Trump speaks with NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre

FAN Editor

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre called President Trump and the two spoke on the phone Tuesday in the wake of the mass shootings in Ohio and Texas, a senior administration official confirmed to CBS News. 

The White House has not disclosed what the two discussed. But soon after the shootings, the president called on Congress to pass legislation on background checks, which the NRA has long opposed and lobbied against. Mr. Trump has not always supported strengthening background check laws, threatening to veto such legislation earlier this year. The president also spoke with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who said the two discussed the NRA’s concerns about a background check bill, according to a spokesperson for the senator.

Manchin said the president told him he wants to see legislation before September, and the West Virginia senator told Mr. Trump he needs to be outspoken in his support for the background checks bill in order to secure Republican support.

Trending News

The NRA issued a statement expressing “deepest sympathies” after the Ohio and Texas shootings, insisting the group would “work in good faith to pursue real solutions that protect us all from people who commit these horrific acts.”

LaPierre and the NRA have come under scrutiny in recent months, most recently after the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported that the NRA considered buying LaPierre a $5 million, 10,000 mansion near Dallas for his safety. Internal turmoil has plagued the gun rights group, with former NRA president Oliver North leaving after only a year in the job, and the group’s finances are also in disarray. The NRA’s  tax-exempt status is being investigated by the state attorneys general in New York and Washington, D.C. 

The NRA was a substantial financial backer of Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and Mr. Trump has spoken multiple times at NRA gatherings, praising the group’s defense of the Second Amendment and pledging that Americans’ rights to carry firearms will always be protected under his presidency. 

“Your Second Amendment rights are under siege, but they will never, ever be under siege as long as I’m your president,” Mr. Trump said in a speech to the NRA last year. 

After the February 2018 Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, however, the president mocked fellow Republicans for being “petrified” of the NRA, claiming he doesn’t need to cave to the group’s demands. Back then, the president also said at the time that he supported expanded background checks, although he did not push the effort. The Trump administration did ban bump stocks, a move that received significant pushback from the gun lobby. 

It’s unclear what comes next for the White House and Congress on any gun control measures, particularly with Congress out of session for the August recess. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to return to work on gun reforms, but McConnell declined. 

Mr. Trump says there is a strong appetite in Congress for expanded background checks, although he doesn’t think the same is true for banning assault-style firearms. The president, as CBS News has reported, is also considering taking executive actions on gun control. White House principal deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said the White House is looking at a number of things on the “legislative and executive level, and we’re looking at all of those things to make sure this never happens again.” 

— CBS News White House correspondent Ben Tracy and CBS’ Sara Cook contributed to this report 

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

UniCredit Chairman Saccomanni has died: source

FILE PHOTO: Italy’s Minister of Economy and Finance Fabrizio Saccomanni gestures during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 23, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo August 8, 2019 ROME (Reuters) – Fabrizio Saccomanni, chairman of Italy’s biggest bank UniCredit <CRDI.MI>, has died suddenly, […]