amna: It is a busy and
high-stakes week at the U.S.
Capitol with lawmakers working
to find a bipartisan compromise
on guns and the January 6 select
committee holding its first
televised hearing to present its
findings.
To break down it all, I'm here
with Amy Walter of the cook
political report with Amy
Walter.
And Tamara Keith of NPR.
Welcome to you both.
I want to begin with this
conversation on gun violence
prevention measures and where it
is in Washington with lawmakers.
We have had this conversation a
few days -- it has been 30 years
since the assault weapons ban in
1994, since there have been
meaningful measures by
lawmakers.
After each horrific shooting we
say, will this be different?
There is some optimism.
Will it be different?
Amy: It seems we are having two
different discussions.
For Republicans the focus is
about behavior more than guns,
doing more to flag people who
have mental illness, doing more
with background checks.
A Republican senator leading
this bipartisan group says, we
are not going to do anything
that would limit the magazine
numbers or take away anybody's
guns or put a ban on assault
weapons.
The issue is not about what type
of gun legislation can happen,
it will happen for Republicans
based on making changes to
behaviors they can regulate.
If you have had a domestic
record, or something in your
record that raises red flags.
When you hear from Democrats
saying, I will do what it takes
to get [indiscernible]
Even though he would like to see
more expansive gun reforms, he
seems willing to take what
Republicans are going to give on
those issues in order to get
something through.
Amna: Where is the president on
this?
Sweeping reforms not part of
senate talks.
Is he involved in these?
Tamara: No, he is not.
He is giving them space to work
it out on their own.
There is the potential whenever
a president gets involved that
politics harden, that whatever
deal that seems possible in
smaller sessions stops seeming
possible.
He has called repeatedly, as he
did in that speech, for a return
to an assault weapons ban.
If that is not possible, at
least raise the age to 21 to get
an assault weapon.
The senate is not talking about
that.
There are not 60 votes even for
that.
He is not going to get what he
is asking for, but he does take
the long view.
He was involved in passing that
assault weapons ban in the
1990's.
He knew how long he spent
working on that and falls back
to that when he expresses
optimism.
A lot has changed since then.
That makes it difficult.
If the senate were to pass
modest reforms that Amy talked
about, those would be the most
sweeping reforms congress has
passed.
Amna: That is worth noting.
Even incremental progress is
progress.
Even if they do move forward
just on the red flag issue.
A senator was asked about this
and said if we don't get
something done after uvalde, you
would feed the narrative that we
just can't get things done.
Will that help push things
along?
Amy: That is a big piece of
this.
We have already seen from one
Republican in the house, for a
Republican to talk about guns in
particular, saying, yes, I think
we should have a ban on assault
weapons, his district abuts
Buffalo, which had that horrific
shooting.
He has decided not to run for
reelection because of the
blowback in his district.
Amna: Part of the political
reality.
The January 6 committee will
hold its first public hearing
Thursday June 9, 8:00 P.M.
Eastern.
We will have that live.
This primetime presentation,
what are you looking for?
Amy: I am looking for what is
new and different.
It is not clear yet.
They are promising there will be
new pieces of information.
More than that, members of the
committee are promising a
narrative that weaves it
together, these disparate
storylines.
What I am looking for is whether
they have any chance of breaking
through.
The public has only grown more
divided.
There are more and more
Americans who don't consider
what happened on January 6 to be
a problem.
They see the people who were
arrested and charged with crimes
as martyrs.
There is a dramatic divide with
what happened and whether it is
a problem.
I don't know if this committee
with its two Republicans in
exile will be able to bridge
that.
Amna: The audience they are
aiming for, who is he talking
about?
Tamara: The open minded people
want to hear what happens next,
how do we prevent this from
happening again.
They are not interested in
relitigating what happens, but
they want people held
accountable for doing things
that are against the law and to
say let's make sure we find a
way to prevent this in the
future.
They are not going to do this
necessarily on Monday, but to
say here are our suggestions for
ways for this to not happen
again.
And for those suggestions to
sound reasonable and meaningful,
that will be a challenge.
Amna: Will the president be
watching?
Tamara: I do not know.
He will be attending the summit
of the Americas in Los Angeles
and has a busy schedule that may
prevent him from watching that
live.
Amna: Have we heard anything
from the white house about what
they expect?
There is obviously a political
calculus to this.
Amy: They have other really big
problems like inflation.
Watching focus groups as I have
done, no one mentioned January
6, but they all mentioned
inflation.
Amna: Interesting to note.