Dem Rep. Cleaver: McConnell Doesn’t Care to Listen About Gun Reform — ‘He Plays to an Audience of One’

During a Thursday appearance on CNN’s “New Day,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) lamented over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) lack of response to a letter from over 200 House Democrats urging him to cancel the chamber’s August recess to address the deadly shootings that happened in El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH.

Cleaver said it is “frustrating” that McConnell is refusing to do something about getting “rid of war weapons,” adding he is just playing to “an audience of one.”

“I think the Senate majority leader is also listening to the NRA, and I don’t think that he is going to respond to the letter in a positive way at least,” Cleaver stated. “And it’s sad because if you think about this we’re a nation over 300 million people, most of whom support background checks, most of whom support getting rid of war weapons held by citizens, and yet one person is going against almost 300 million people and refusing to do something that is a modest reform of guns. And it’s so tragic because it’s frustrating the public.”

He continued, “[I]ndividuals are expressing their frustrations with what is going on … and I don’t think that the majority leader cares. I think he plays to an audience of one.”

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