NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch on Thursday said she believes President Donald Trump is still weighing his options on gun control after he expressed support for certain gun legislation that the NRA has traditionally spoken out against.
“I think he’s just entertaining both sides,” said Loesch, after CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked her multiple times if her organization felt betrayed by the President’s remarks in a freewheeling meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House Wednesday. “I think he’s listening to see what both sides have to say.”
“Right now it seems like they’re just in the discussion phase, which is good,” she added later in the conversation. “I would hope that they would be talking to everyone and really hearing what the voters have to say.”
The chaotic meeting on Wednesday — which multiple lawmakers recalled with bewilderment — saw Trump break with his party on key issues and take positions, like a suggestion to take people’s guns away before a judge has a chance to weigh in, that his administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill had never proposed.
For example, one of the sources said the plan was to roll out a policy that would make it easier for a judge to weigh in on whether someone with a mental illness should have a firearm. But Trump said the opposite.
“Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said.
CNN’s Dan Merica and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.