NAME NAMES, PLEASE

Who Are the ‘Rational Republicans’ Biden Says Are Rethinking Gun Laws?

Apparently one of them is... Mitch McConnell.

Days after the deadliest school shooting the U.S. has seen since Sandy Hook, Joe Biden has expressed tentative hope for bipartisan gun legislation.

When asked Monday if he believes the current talks between Democrats and Republicans could produce actual legislation, Politico reports that the president told reporters, “I don’t know, but I think there’s a realization on the part of rational Republicans... that we can’t continue like this. We can’t do this.”

But, according to Biden, those so-called “rational Republicans” include the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)—whose involvement in this political narrative feels like foreshadowing that Lucy is getting ready to lift the football once again.

Anyone who’s been paying attention for the past decade of mass shooting coverage knows that calling for bipartisan solutions and then stonewalling is one of McConnell’s favorite moves—a play he’s broken out after numerous tragedies including Sandy Hook, the Charleston shooting in 2015, and the Parkland massacre.

thoughts and prayers

McConnell Keeps Pulling His Fave Move After Mass Shootings

Jackie Kucinich

And as for that second bastion of rationality Biden name-checked, Cornyn? He quoted-tweeted an article in which actual safety experts dismantled Republicans’ “single entry” schools proposition with a three-word rebuttal: “Do like airports?”

If there’s one morning ritual guaranteed to prepare grade schoolers for a day of learning, surely it’s a school drop-off experience that mimics the TSA.

Republican lawmakers have collected millions of dollars in support from the National Rifle Association over the years, both through direct donations and funding against their opponents. The party’s reliance on such funding has come under scrutiny in the wake of repeated tragedies—especially as leaders refuse to budge on gun rights even as popular opinion supports some measure of reform.

The timing of Biden’s comment about the potential for bipartisan legislation, days after Senate Republicans blocked a domestic terrorism bill that Democrats hoped might be a jumping-off point for broader gun-rights negotiations, is poignant.

McConnell has not commented on the shootings in recent weeks, beyond saying that he’s encouraged Cornyn to reach across the aisle in search of those long-elusive cooperative strategies. “I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution that’s directly related to the facts of this awful massacre,” McConnell said.

At a gun-control rally outside the Capitol, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) promised a vote on gun-control bills is on its way in the Senate. “We’re going to have a debate here,” he said, per The New York Times. “We are going to force people to tell America which side they are on.”

On Sunday’s Face the Nation, Murphy added, “I think we can get something done, but we don’t have a lot of time.”

“Republicans are not willing to support everything that I support, like banning assault weapons, but I really think that we could pass something that saves lives and breaks this logjam that we’ve had for 30 years, proving to Republicans that if you vote to tighten the nation’s gun laws, the sky doesn’t fall for you politically.”