U.S. President Joe BidenMonday was a day of anger and frustration following a Texas election. mass shooting with remarks about gun safety reform that included describing two GOP congressional leaders as “rational.”
The president said on the White House lawn that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is “a rational Republican,” and he thinks Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is Too, according to multiple reporters present.
Biden’s comments came after McConnell told CNN last week — after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde — that he “encouraged” Cornyn to talk with Democrats to “come up with a bipartisan solution.”
Responding on Twitter to the president’s Monday statement, Our America co-host Sawyer Hackett simply said, “Wait, what?”
Thor Benson, a writer, was also concise. tweeting, “Hmmm….. no.”
Nina Turner, former Democratic Ohio congressional candidate asked, “What is the point of neoliberalism?”
What in the neoliberal hell is this?
This is a “rational” Republican, apparently. https://t.co/qNMqTJCVeD pic.twitter.com/rBLleWmQD7
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) May 30, 2022
Jeet Heer is a correspondent for national affairs at The Nation, said that “this might be justified if it yielded results in Republican lawmakers voting for parts of Biden’s agenda, but it won’t.”
“As it stands,” he warned, “it’s giving centrist voters permission to vote for any Republican who is not” former President Donald Trump or Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Noting that “Cornyn was tweeting a few days ago about making schools like airports,” journalist Aaron Rupar said that “I’m skeptical of his rationality on guns.”
“I beg of Democrats to start dealing with Republicans as they are and not the made-up version you wish they were,” he added.
In which Joe Biden praises Mitch McConnell as a ‘rational’ Republican on gun control. Kill me now. https://t.co/uSDl2C0Nti
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 30, 2022
Last Tuesday, Salvador Ramos used an AR-15-style-rifle That he is legally purchased Texas, after his 18th birthday, to murder 19 children as well as two teachers Uvalde elementary school. Law enforcement killed the teenage gunman. Biden’s Department of Justice is now reviewing The police response to shooting.
The president told reporters Monday that “I think things have gotten so bad that everybody’s getting more rational about it, at least that’s my hope.”
“The Second Amendment was never absolute,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and buy a lot of weapons.”
Biden, too explained the limitations on his powers, saying that “I can’t dictate this stuff. I can do the things that I’ve done — and any executive action I can take I’ll continue to take — but I can outlaw a weapon. I can’t… change the background checks. I can’t do that.”
Democratic leaders are terminally unable to stop themselves from praising Republicans as “rational” and legitimate political partners.
It’s absurd. We’re in the midst of a civil war, but most Dems don’t seem to realize it. https://t.co/V93l2vd1Tt https://t.co/0XFOBwfWYC
— Jordan Zakarin (@jordanzakarin) May 30, 2022
Onlookers were there when Biden visited Texas on the weekend shouted “Do something!” at him. The Principal Recovery Network wrote to him in a Sunday mail made Similar demands should be made of all elected officials in the U.S.
Faced with nationwide calls for action data on firearm deaths in the United States, House Democrats have repeatedly moved to strengthen gun laws in recent years, but unless the party’s entire caucus in the Senate decides to end the filibuster, most legislation cannot make it through the evenly split upper chamber without GOP support.
