Gun Control Likely To Dominate 2020 Race As Democratic Candidates Blast Republicans For Inaction, Inflammatory Rhetoric
“Every time this happens, we say never again. We say we’re going to do something. We say it’s going to change and it hasn’t,” Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said. “At the end of the day, without political change, I don’t know that we’ll get the solutions we need. But if this doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will.” Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman from El Paso, and Rep. Tim Ryan from Ohio both went after President Donald Trump, claiming he is a white nationalist. Ryan pointed to a Trump rally held in May during which someone from the audience yelled “shoot them!” when the president asked how to stop the flood of illegal immigrants. Trump didn’t issue a rebuke, and instead joked that “that’s only in the Panhandle [where] you can get away with that statement.”
Reuters:
Democrats Aim Their Outrage At Trump After Two Mass Shootings
The El Paso shooting sent shock waves onto the campaign trail for next year's presidential election, with most Democratic candidates repeating calls for tighter gun control measures and some drawing connections to a resurgence in white nationalism and xenophobic politics in the United States. Several 2020 candidates said Trump was indirectly to blame."Donald Trump is responsible for this. He is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotry," U.S. Senator Cory Booker said on CNN's "State of the Union." (Chiacu and Schroeder, 8/4)
The Washington Post:
2020 Dems Back Gun Limits After El Paso Mass Shooting
Democratic presidential candidates expressed outrage Saturday that mass shootings have become chillingly common nationwide and blamed the National Rifle Association and its congressional allies after a gunman opened fire at a shopping area near the Texas-Mexico border. “It’s not just today, it has happened several times this week. It’s happened here in Las Vegas where some lunatic killed 50 some odd people,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said as he and 18 other White House hopefuls were in Nevada to address the nation’s largest public employees union. “All over the world, people are looking at the United States and wondering what is going on? What is the mental health situation in America, where time after time, after time, after time, we’re seeing indescribable horror.” (Price and Ronanye, 8/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Gun Control Is Thrust Into 2020 Campaign, But New Laws Face Hurdles
The back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio—one of which authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime—thrust back into the national spotlight the debate over gun-control laws, which is likely to dominate the presidential campaign in coming days even as legislation faces steep odds of passing. Democrats on Sunday criticized Senate Republicans for opposing legislation they said would help prevent mass shootings and accused President Trump of using rhetoric that helped incite the violence. Republicans expressed outrage at the weekend shootings that killed 29 people but offered few signs of wavering on their opposition to new gun laws. (Ballhaus, Kiernan and Andrews, 8/4)
Politico:
String Of Gun Deaths Reshapes Democratic Primary
The immediate aftershocks of the shootings were felt by the three candidates whose home states were affected: Tim Ryan in Ohio, and Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro in Texas. Struggling in the polls and unable to command significant coverage, all found themselves over the weekend the subject of intense media interest as they abandoned the campaign trail, canceled events and headed home amid a crush of national and local interest. The shootings also heightened the stakes for an upcoming gun violence forum for the Democratic candidates, all of whom blanketed television, radio and social media over the weekend to highlight their gun control plans, to call on the Republican-led Senate to come back from summer break to pass gun safety legislation, and to attack President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration. (Caputo and Siders, 8/4)
The New York Times:
How Gun Control Groups Are Catching Up To The N.R.A.
The political momentum in the gun control debate has shifted in the year leading up to this weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, with gun control advocates taking a more empowered stance and the National Rifle Association consumed by internal power struggles. The major gun control organizations, propelled by funding from supporters like Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, and grass-roots networks across the country, have helped enact new laws — mostly in Democratic-controlled states — and, for the first time in 25 years, passed a significant gun control bill in the House. (Epstein, Astor and Hakim, 8/4)
