Senator Tim Kaine (D -VA) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that Democrats will unify on gun safety by putting a background check bill on the Senate floor for a vote to “test the Republicans.”
Kaine said, “Let’s do background checks. 77% of Republican voters want us to do comprehensive background checks. The numbers with Independents and Democrats are higher still. So, let’s unify the Democrats behind that, and let’s test the Republicans. Are they going to oppose 70% of their own voters on this? We have to find a path, put this on the floor for a vote, and I hope we’ll do it soon.”
He added, “When we came close to 60 votes in 2013, I was four months in the Senate. We had the vote nearly on the anniversary date of the shooting of Virginia tech. They were sitting in the Senate holding hands with Sandy Hook families, and it felt horrible that we fell short. We did have Republican votes. To get this past the goal line on background checks, get all Democrats to unify and say we accept this is a test of us. We said if we got a majority, we would do it. We have to do it. Then we can go out and see about getting Republican support like we had in 2013.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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