Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized President Donald Trump Friday for seemingly reversing his positions on gun control efforts after a meeting with the National Rifle Association.
“When I dealt with the President on immigration, I said negotiating with him is like negotiating with Jell-O. And that’s what happens,” the New York Democrat said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “He believes one thing one day and then seems to contradict himself.”
“Here with guns, it’s a typical pattern,” Schumer said of the President. “With the bipartisan group and the camera lights on, his instincts were to do the right thing.”
Schumer later added, “Then the hard-right puts pressure on him — in this case, the NRA — and he does total 180-degree flip.”
During a bipartisan meeting with senators Wednesday, Trump came out in of support strengthening background checks, raising the minimum age to buy certain guns from 18 to 21, and taking guns away from the mentally ill even without due process in court. A day later, Trump met with the NRA and said he’s in favor of “strong due process and (doesn’t) want gun control,” according to the group’s top lobbyist.
“It makes you think that the President has no convictions, that he just says what’s convenient at the moment,” Schumer told CNN Friday.
Schumer accused the President of succumbing to the “pressure group that puts the most heat on him, in this case the NRA.”
The top Democrat in the Senate also said he thinks it’s unlikely that Congress passes any gun reform legislation.
“Leader McConnell, Speaker Ryan are so afraid of the NRA as are most of their members that unless Trump gives them cover by saying he’s for it, it’s very hard to see us getting anything done until maybe the Congress changes in a year after the elections,” Schumer said.