Obama:'I Won't Campaign' With Candidates Who Don't Support Gun Control
In an op-ed in The New York Times on Thursday, President Obama vowed to not “campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform.” At a town hall event hosted by CNN that night, he explained why.
”Yeah, I meant what I said,” Obama said when asked about the op-ed by moderator Anderson Cooper. “And the reason I said that is this: The majority of people in this country are a lot more sensible than what you see in Washington.” Obama singled out the National Rifle Association as one of the “loudest, shrillest voices” against gun control and told the audience “[that] the way we break the deadlock on this issue is when the NRA doesn't have a stranglehold on Congress in this debate.” To that end, the president said, “I want to throw my shoulders behind those who want to solve problems, and not those who want to get high scores from an interest group."
Thursday’s town hall at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, came two days after the president signed an executive order to strengthen background-check processes for firearm purchases. My colleague Russell Berman noted on Wednesday that despite Obama’s touting and his critics’ complaints, the modest measures fall far short of universal background checks and won’t change much. And as my colleague Clare Foran noted earlier this week, Tuesday’s orders weren’t Obama’s first attempt to curb gun violence through presidential power. His administration also unveiled 23 executive actions in the wake of Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
But his actions and words this week cap a significant evolution on the issue for Obama, who largely avoided gun control as a policy priority during his first term. Now his electoral support of current and future mayors, governors, members of Congress, and presidents hinges upon it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/obama-guns-town-hall/423210/?utm_source=SFTwitter
Obama has zero fucks left to give and no more campaigns to run.
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