We were listening to Senator Chris Murphy. I know there
has been a reaction from senator Chuck Schumer. Wha
more can you tell us at this point? What have you been
seeing play out on capitol hill today? Hey veronic
Well, we're hearing what you hear after every mass
shooting lots of thoughts and prayers and heartbreak
about the tragedy striking America yet again. But thus
far just about every lawmaker is unfortunately stayi
in their partisan political lanes. Democrats, as you
can hear in Senator Murphy's voice, are desperate f
some kind of action on any kind of gun legislation.
Whether that be background checks in assault weapons
ban, red flag law, democrats want to do something to
try to stop this from happening again. But Senat
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during his floor speech
on the Senate floor earlier today, really pointing
finger at republicans for their lack of willingness to
come to the table and even try to work out something
with democrats to try to find that path forward. The
senator Murphy was looking for, take a listen to my
republican colleagues. Imagine it happened to you,
Imagine if this was your kids or your grandkids, how
would you feel? Could you ever forgive yourself? We'r
not supporting a simple law that would make these mass
shootings less likely. Please, please, please damn it!
Put yourself in the shoes of these parents for once
now, Senator Schumer's comments, echoing what I've
heard from just about every democrat thus far? On the
hill. Senate Minority leader, Republican. Senator mit
McConnell also spoke this morni on the floor and he
spoke of the heartbreak and spoke of the tragedy, we
didn't talk about the type of legislation or working
with democrats to try to move forward and actually do
something to stop this from happening again.
Republicans, you'll hear them talking about the need to
spend money on mental health. Um, but republicans
largely saying the problem isn' guns, it's not what we
should be focusing on. And that's some of what we heard
from Senator ted Cruz in a comment that he made before
heading out towards the valley. So take a listen to
cruise, try to politicize it. You see democrats and a
lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution
to try to restrict the constitutional rights of la
abiding citizens. That doesn't work. It's not
effective, it doesn't prevent crime. We know what does
prevent crime, which is going after felons and
fugitives and those with serious mental illness,
arresting them prosecuting them when they try to
illegally buy firearms. Senator Schumer has taken a
procedural step to try to get to background check bills
to the floor, vote to the Senate floor for some votes
Both of these bills already passed by the House back in
March of last year and they have just been languishing
in the Senate with Senator. Senator Schumer knowin
doesn't have the 10 republican votes, he needs to
overcome a filibuster. So even if these bills do come
to the floor, they're likely to get blocked.
Unfortunately, sonny, let's go ahead and shift our
attention for a second to the A. T. F. Which
unfortunately is the smallest federal agency which
overlooks all of this. What is it the Bureau for guns,
tobacco, firearms, explosives. is a meeting today
on all of this and this is again an agency that has
been without a director without any leadership for
years. Now. What is going to happen in that meeting
today? What exactly is at stake here? Well, it's the
Senate Judiciary Committee that's holding some
nomination hearings and one of the nominations are
considering today is Steve Dettelbach President Bide
nominee to lead the ATF Now, as you're saying, the ATF
Has been going years without a Senate confirmed
director the last time they had one was in 2015. So the
ATF Has been struggling and has been underfunded. And
that's something that I heard from Senator Cory Booker
earlier this morning, caught him in the hallways, asked
him as a member of the Judiciary Committee how las
night's shooting was going to impact today's hearing
for this. ATF Director nominee. And he's you know,
stressed that Congress and the government needs to be
putting more money into the ATF. That they are being,
you know, handcuffed and unable to enforce the laws
that are already on the books. Um but that is in light
of the shooting yesterday, the hearing today and the
questions for Steve Dettelbach, definitely taking o
new importance and a new meaning. Like you just said,
this is an agency that has been without a leader for
almost seven years now, Stephanie Liebergen report
reporting live from Capitol Hill, Stephanie, we always
appreciate it. Thank you so, so much.