“I am skeptical that these efforts are going to bear fruit,” Murphy said Friday. “I think it’s very hard to negotiate with this White House when the president’s public positions seem to change by the day.”
“I’m sure there will some there will be some people who will say I’m naive to think that we’re going to end up getting a proposal through that will significantly expand background checks and be able to get 60 votes in the Senate, but I’m going to try,” he added.
Murphy said he believes Trump has the “instinct to lead” but he’s talking to the gun lobby “more more frequently than he’s talking to me.”
“If this, you know, all seems like a ruse, an attempt by the president to make it look like he’s doing something without actually moving the ball down the field, I think we’ll know that in fairly short order,” Murphy said.
Murphy acknowledged that public support for passing a universal background check is at an all-time high and it’s very likely Republicans are keeping this in mind heading into the 2020 presidential election cycle.
“If you want to win the presidency in 2020 you can’t be in the pocket of the gun lobby,” Murphy said. “If you win a seat for Congress in the 2020 elections, you can’t be owned by the gun industry. You have to show that you are willing to take them on.”
Murphy said he thought it was “interesting” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is “opening the door” to a background checks bill in the Senate because McConnell likely recognizes the issue of guns could be a real “political vulnerability” for his caucus.
“The only way that we pass a bill in the Senate is if there is a proposal with words on a piece of paper that the president says he’s for and says it for more than 24 hours at a time,” Murphy said.
He added: “If Donald Trump gets behind a background checks reform bill, it will pass the Senate.”
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
