Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Despite Internal Strife, NRA's Clout Still Evident After One Phone Call Convinces Trump To Sideline Background Checks
The New York Times: N.R.A. Gets Results In One Phone Call With The President
President Trump spent at least 30 minutes on the phone Tuesday with Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, the latest conversation in an aggressive campaign by gun rights advocates to influence the White House in the weeks since the back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. The call ended the way that Mr. LaPierre had hoped it would: with Mr. Trump espousing N.R.A. talking points in the Oval Office and warning of the radical steps he said Democrats wanted to take in violation of the Second Amendment. (Haberman, Karni and Hakim, 8/20)
The Atlantic: Trump’s Phone Calls With Wayne LaPierre Reveal NRA’s Influence
“It’s going to be great, Wayne,” Trump said, according to both a former senior White House official and an NRA official briefed on the call. “They will love us.” And if they—meaning the roughly 5 million people who make up the NRA’s active membership, and some of Trump’s electoral base—didn’t, Trump reportedly assured LaPierre, “I’ll give you cover.” “Wayne’s listening to that and thinking, Uh, no, Mr. President, we give you cover,” the former senior White House official said in describing the conversation. The president reportedly asked LaPierre whether the NRA was willing to give in at all on background checks. LaPierre’s response, the sources said, was unequivocal: “No.” With that, “the Rose Garden fantasy,” as the NRA official described it to me, was scrapped as quickly as it had been dreamed up. (Plott, 8/20)
The Washington Post: Trump Tells NRA Chief That Universal Background Checks Are Off The Table
Trump told LaPierre that the White House remained interested in proposals that would address weapons getting into the hands of the mentally ill, including the possibility of backing so-called “red flag” laws that would allow the police to temporarily confiscate guns from people who have been shown to be a danger to themselves or others. Nonetheless, the president’s conversation with LaPierre, which was first reported by the Atlantic, further reduced hopes that major new gun-safety measures will be enacted after the latest round of mass shootings. (Hamburger and Dawsey, 8/20)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Retreats On Background Checks, Citing ‘Slippery Slope’ To Gun Confiscation
The president said on Tuesday that his supporters are strong believers in a constitutional right to bear arms, and that he is, too. “You know they call it the slippery slope, and all of a sudden everything gets taken away,” he said. “We’re not going to let that happen.” “We have very, very strong background checks right now, but we have sort of missing areas, and areas that don’t complete the whole circle. And we’re looking at different things,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday. He didn’t elaborate on what areas he considers lacking, talking instead about looking at mental-illness issues. (Leary, 8/20)
USA Today: Donald Trump Backs Away From Stricter Gun Background Check Laws
On Aug. 9, before leaving the White House, Trump said, "frankly, we need intelligent background checks," adding that "this isn't a question of NRA, Republican, or Democrat." Trump also told reporters that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was "totally onboard." On August 18, arriving at Morristown Airport in New Jersey, Trump said "Congress is meeting. Bipartisan. A lot of people want to see something happen. But just remember this: Big mental problem, and we do have a lot of background checks now." (Wu, 8/20)
Los Angeles Times: Wary Of Alienating His Base, Trump Retreats On Gun Control Proposals
The about-face followed a familiar pattern for Trump, a native New Yorker who lacks a personal affinity for guns but has championed gun rights since entering politics. Before he ran for president in 2015, he supported restrictions championed by Democrats, but now he fears upsetting his hardcore Republican supporters — especially as he heads into what polls indicate will be a difficult reelection race. (Megerian, 8/20)
WBUR: Sen. Richard Blumenthal: 'We're Very, Very Close' On Red-Flag Legislation
Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday that he and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham are "very, very close" to introducing "red flag" legislation to curb gun violence.The bipartisan bill would assist states in adopting red flag laws by creating a federal grant program. The grants would go to law enforcement "so they can hire and consult with mental health professionals to better determine which cases need to be acted upon," Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement. (Schroeder and Bauman, 8/20)
Iowa Public Radio: Reynolds On Preventing Gun Violence: 'We'll Look At Everything'
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she will “take a look at” multiple ways to prevent gun violence, adding that she has already done a lot toward that goal. But Reynolds did not take a position on any specific gun-related laws. Some Republican elected officials including Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, say they support the concept of “red flag” laws. Those can allow police or family members who see warning signs in others to seek a court order temporarily blocking that person from accessing a gun. (Sostaric, 8/20)
WBUR: Mandatory Gun Insurance? San Jose Mayor Says It's Part Of The Solution
Less than a month after a mass shooting in California, San Jose is considering a proposal that would make it the first city in the U.S. to require gun owners to carry liability insurance. Mayor Sam Liccardo, who introduced the legislation last week, says the mandate would follow the “harm reduction” approach used with car insurance: rewarding safe behavior, while covering the cost of accidents and neglect. (Mosley and Paris, 8/20)
The Washington Post: After Trump Blames Mental Illness For Mass Shootings, Health Agencies Ordered To Hold All Posts On Issue
When President Trump targeted mental illness as the cause of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that killed 31 people, federal health officials made sure no government experts might contradict him. A Health and Human Services directive on Aug. 5 warned communication staffers not to post anything on social media related to mental health, violence and mass shootings without prior approval. That alarmed some government mental health experts who said they felt muzzled at a moment when many Americans were searching for answers to the U.S. epidemic of mass shootings, said three agency employees. (Abutaleb and Wan, 8/20)
The Hill: Federal Health Officials Were Ordered Not To Post About Mental Health After Trump Linked It To Shootings: Report
An HHS employee told the Post he had “no doubt this was meant to prevent anybody from making any statements that might contradict the president.” “We understand we’re not supposed to contradict the president, but it’s not typical” for the administration to mandate senior officials clear social media posts, he added. (Axelrod, 8/20)
The Washington Post: Parkland Students Unveil Sweeping Gun-Control Proposal And Hope For A Youth Voting Surge In 2020
The student activists who crashed the political arena after the mass shooting last year at their high school in Parkland, Fla., are throwing their weight behind a new and ambitious gun-control program that they hope will set the tone for the debate following the most recent mass shootings and headed into the 2020 elections. The students are speaking out for the first time since 31 people were killed in one weekend in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. They hope their plan — unveiled Wednesday morning — will be considered by President Trump as well as his Democratic presidential rivals and will serve as a catalyst for a surge of youth voters next year. (Alemany, 8/21)
The Wall Street Journal: Gun Sellers Are Sneaking Onto Facebook’s Booming Secondhand Marketplace
Gun sellers are using a simple trick to do business on Facebook Inc. Marketplace at a time when more mass shootings in the U.S. have renewed the debate in Washington over access to firearms. The Marketplace feature, which Facebook launched four years ago, enabled its more than two billion users to buy and sell almost any secondhand item by clicking a button on their home page. However, the private sale of many items, including guns, is specifically forbidden under Facebook policy. (Olson and Elinson, 8/20)
