Joe Biden didn’t mince words when it came to addressing his gun control plans during his first press conference, which many critics are now suggesting was choreographed.
He didn’t really offer any words at all, telling reporters, “It’s a matter of timing,” according to Fox News.
“As you all have observed,” he added, “successful presidents, better than me, have been successful in large part because they know how to time what they’re doing.”
He indicated restoring infrastructure would be his next priority, not gun control.
That position was reinforced Friday by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who told reporters Biden is “prepared to issue executive orders to enact gun reform, circumventing the need for a divided Congress to pass legislation,” according to Yahoo News.
In the wake of two recent mass shootings accounting for 18 victims, Biden’s press conference response may have seemed rather lame for the man who declared, just a few days before, that he doesn’t “want to wait another minute, let alone an hour,” to move on gun restrictions, which anti-gunners continue portraying as “gun reforms.” But Psaki’s remarks Friday may indicate the fire is being rekindled.
As noted by Fox News, it’s been 25 years since a president inked a major gun control bill. That was in 1994, when Bill Clinton signed the so-called “Clinton Crime Bill” that contained a 10-year ban on so-called “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines.” That legislation cost Democrats control of Congress for the remainder of Clinton’s presidency, so it may not be too mysterious why Biden seems to suddenly be sidestepping the issue.
The Senate is now sitting on two measures dealing with background checks, H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, which Senate Republicans think are “overreaching.” Gun rights advocates such as Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, calls the measures “extreme.”
CCRKBA is already fighting back with a television campaign “SAVE2A.US.” The group is sponsoring a national television campaign on more than a dozen networks.
Fox News is also reporting that pivotal Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) “has said he will not join his caucus in supporting the current bills.”
And Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey reportedly told reporters he doesn’t think current House legislation can make it through the Senate, where the required 60 votes for passage could simply be out of reach.
It was Biden’s use of “cheat sheets” with taking points and a roster of reporters with images that is raising eyebrows among his critics. A Reuters photographer caught the president using the sheets to identify reporters called on to ask questions. Fox News’ Peter Doocy was not among the chosen.
