The United States has now
surpassed more than 150 mass shootings
this year.
That's according to the Gun
Violence Archive.
CNN defines a mass shooting as one in
which at least four people are shot,
not including the shooter.
Four such instances
were reported
yesterday in New York City, in Houston,
Detroit, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
With each of these incidents
resulting in four victims
all told, more than 5000
people have been killed from gun violence
this year, including 73 children.
Relatedly, in our Politics
Lead, the National Rifle Association,
which continues to successfully lobby
against gun
restrictions, ones
that are supported in polling
by most Americans,
is beginning its annual convention
in Indianapolis, Indiana, today,
drawing many Republican
presidential hopefuls.
The gathering is taking place
just four days after the deadly bank
shooting in Louisville
and less than three weeks
after that other school
shooting at the Covenant
Christian School in Nashville.
Today, convention
attendees heard former
Vice President Mike Pence
and some gave him
something of a chilly reception
while the NRA
I love you, too.
CNN's Kristen Holmes is outside
the NRA convention in Indianapolis.
Christine,
that is vice
president of Pence's home state
where he was the governor.
He's still super pro-gun, pro NRA.
What was that
Yeah, Jake, it was actually very jarring.
It was not the entire room.
It was a handful of people,
but it was loud and it was very clear.
And he played it off.
The former vice president played it off.
He said, I love you, too.
And he continued on with his speech.
But it wasn't
just when he entered the room.
It was also when he left a continual
booing there.
I talked to one attendee
who said it was directly
related to the break,
the fracture
between him
and former President
Trump over January six.
And I will note,
this was a very Trump
friendly crowd
when you walked
into the convention center
and a huge billboard welcoming
everybody was a picture of Trump
with Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA,
and then all the other speakers
were in small little boxes next to it.
The entire crowd,
almost everyone
I spoke to
was there to see the former president.
He got a standing ovation.
So not that surprise
that Pence would not get
the warmest reception
given their relationship.
But it is interesting to note,
this is the first time
that they were both at a public event,
the same public event,
and they didn't overlap
but they haven't talked in
over two years.
And of course, we know
this is a collision course.
Looks to be
it looks to be a collision course
in 20, 24 that they're currently on
All right.
Kristen Holmes at the NRA convention
in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mike Pence's own home state.
If I didn't mention that,
I want to bring in
CNN political commentator Jonah Goldberg,
along with former
deputy assistant and president Biden.
Rohini.
So thank you so much for being here.
Are you surprised that,
I mean, they were booing him
because of his position
in favor of democracy
and the Constitution,
not because of, you know,
he hadn't come out in favor
of new gun restrictions?
Yes.
I mean, you surprised that
this is still so baked in?
Yes and no.
I mean, look,
I mean, NHRA
right now
is essentially a very well-armed C-PAC.
And a lot of these guys
are presumably from out of state
coming here for the convention.
I know people
who go to the NRA convention.
And so if you were to take
a random sample
of very hardcore,
very ideologically
committed base Republicans
and put them anywhere,
you could see Pence getting booed
because you still have something
like 60%.
70% of the Republican electorate
saying that they don't want to let go
completely on the stolen election stuff.
So I want to ask you, this is an issue.
Some gun restrictions, not all.
Not not all of them,
but some gun restrictions pull very,
very well
with the American public
in general, with independent voters,
some of them even with Republicans.
And yet Democratic legislators
can't get anything passed.
Well,
there's no question,
having worked
on multiple
presidential campaigns, the
you know, what's important
to look at here?
It's not that these Republican candidates
don't know that the vast
majority of Americans
we're talking about.
90% approval ratings
for things like universal
background checks
keeping guns
out of the hands of domestic abusers.
They don't care.
And because what they're trying to do
is to get the endorsement
of the National Rifle Association
and what we're looking at
is being able
to signal
for an endorsement
that they will support their agenda
if they become president.
Why do you think Democrats
can achieve something that is
according to polls, popular?
I'm not talking about,
you know, the stuff
that does not poll well, like,
you know, banning guns or whatever.
But but there is
there are a number of measures
preventing domestic abusers
from be able to get guns. Example.
That's that's an issue
that the NRA fights all the time.
And yet it pulls.
It's horrible.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it depends which Democrats
and where you're talking about, right?
Because on a national level,
it's very hard
to get
any legislation passed
that can get over a filibuster,
for example.
And on the state level, the states
that are very that have,
you know, what critics would call
very lax gun laws,
those laws are very popular.
And in the states that have very
strict gun control laws,
they already have very
strict gun control laws. Right.
And so it's just it's
sort of a distribution problem.
There's also just sort of
not at all Mansour Olsen,
but there's
sort of a concentrated benefits
to food costs thing.
The people who care a lot about gun
rights are very organized,
just like the people care about abortion
rights are very organized.
They pay very close
attention to politicians and politicians.
They pay very close attention to them.
And so in the lead up,
especially in a primary season,
getting the endorsement is is a big deal.
So let's talk about something
a little bit more fund.
The super PAC aligned with Trump's
presidential campaign
has released a new ad
that goes after Governor Ron
DeSantis over entitlements,
although it might be a little bit
more memorable for reenacting
and an allegation of one way
that supposedly Mr.
DeSantis once a pudding
when apparently there was no spoon to
be found. Take a look.
The senator
has his
dirty fingers all over
senior entitlements
like cutting Medicare,
slashing Social Security,
even raising our retirement age.
Tell Ron DeSantis to keep his pudding
fingers off our money.
Oh, and get this man a spoon.
Very memorable.
There is.
It was an
ad obviously meant to invoke disgust,
and it is disgusting.
That ad.
But at the same time,
the positions that the ad
is putting forward
about no cuts to Medicare
and Social Security
look far more similar to,
you know, positions
that the President Biden,
just a few weeks ago
was defending and saying,
we will not take
we will not cut Medicare
and Social Security.
So is an interesting contrast,
but certainly very creative.
Well, you know, it's also interesting
and I do want to get you to weigh
in on the pudding part of this also.
But but Donald Trump,
as The Washington Post
pointed out, every single budget
that he sent to Congress
had proposed cuts
in Medicare and Social Security programs,
every single one.
And in 20, 20,
he told CNBC that entitlements
would be on the table, but he lied.
Right.
He also told voters that he wanted
they were never going to touch
their Social Security.
He's always been against it
when it actually would matter.
This is sort of a sop
to a wing of the Republican Party.
Look, I think the ad, you know,
is kind of brilliant, right?
I mean,
you know,
Churchill famously
complained about puddings
that have no theme,
but to get shots
about your entitlement position
in with that,
with the theme of pudding,
it gets kind of clever
and it's going to stick.
Now is going to stick in people's heads.
It is going to get like adjusted enormous
free media because it's just so weird
and gross.
And everyone's like,
can you believe they're doing this?
And so it's a smart play, pudding sticks.
That's the lesson I'm
getting from this pudding sticks.
Thanks to both.
You have a great weekend. And.