In report that didn’t make the cut for Thursday’s CBS This Morning amidst the San Bernardino shooting coverage, the CBS Morning News aired congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes’s latest attempt to push gun control and lament how Congress is “reluctant to pass new control laws” with friendly soundbites from Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Hillary Clinton.
Host Anne-Marie Green first touted how “[o]ne of the loudest” calls for “strengthen gun laws in preventing future mass shootings” was the sick and provocative New York Daily News front page on Thursday as the publication “has been critical of lawmakers who have balked at stricter gun laws.”
Turning to Cordes, Green fretted that “it appears that Capitol Hill is still not ready to take action.”
Cordes took a hard left turn immediately with a friendly introduction to a clip from Boxer by describing her as “one of the biggest proponents of new gun laws” and summarized her response to Cordes in an interview as emphasizing that “condolences aren’t enough.”
Boxer then told Cordes: “It's heart breaking to see another mass shooting in this country. Looks like a war zone and it's not enough to keep lamenting these things. We have to take action.”
Transitioning to Clinton, the CBS News correspondent proclaimed that “[m]ass shootings have become so pervasive that Hillary Clinton was actually talking about guns in Orlando minutes before.”
Only briefly summarizing the other side of opinion in the gun rights camp, she footnoted: “Most Republicans say there is no proof that more gun laws would do any good and some want even more firearms.”
Adding that “GOP presidential candidates [have] steered clear of the politics, saying simply they were praying for the victims,” Cordes complained that “any gun legislation is a nonstarter” for conservatives with House Speaker Paul Ryan remaining “noncommittal.”
Hours after the deadly shooting at an Oregon community college on October 1, Cordes took to the airwaves of the CBS Evening News to attack the GOP-led Senate and the National Rifle Association for not going along with gun control proposals by Democrats and the Obama administration.
The transcript of the segment from the CBS Morning News on December 3 can be found below.
CBS Morning News
December 3, 2015
4:08 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Mass Shootings in America; More than 460 Killed, 1,300 Wounded in 2015]
ANNE-MARIE GREEN: Well, the attack in San Bernardino is the latest mass shooting in this country. Attacks that have become all too familiar. It's the third deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. There have been more than 350 mass shootings, four or more people, this year. That's an average of more than one per day. There are calls by some this morning to strengthen gun laws in hopes of preventing future mass shootings. One of the loudest comes from the New York Daily News today. The paper has been critical of lawmakers who have balked at stricter gun laws, but as Nancy Cordes reports, it appears that Capitol Hill is still not ready to take action.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Mass Shootings in America; Congress Reluctant to Pass New Control Laws]
NANCY CORDES: California Democrat Barbara Boxer has been one of the biggest proponents of new gun laws. She said condolences aren’t enough.
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR BARBARA BOXER (Calif.): It's heart breaking to see another mass shooting in this country. Looks like a war zone and it's not enough to keep lamenting these things. We have to take action.
CORDES: Mass shootings have become so pervasive that Hillary Clinton was actually talking about guns in Orlando minutes before.
HILLARY CLINTON: It is time for us to say, we’re going to have comprehensive background checks, we’re going to close the gun show loophole, we’re going to close the online loophole.
CORDES: Most Republicans say there is no proof that more gun laws would do any good and some want even more firearms. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
MIKE HUCKABEE: In most every case that we’ve had in this country, two things have been a common denominator. One is a mentally unstable person, two, a gun-free zone.
CORDES: Most of his fellow GOP presidential candidates steered clear of the politics, saying simply they were praying for the victims. On Capitol Hill, gun legislation — any gun legislation is a nonstarter. After the Paris attacks, Democrats revived their push to ban gun sales to those on the U.S. terror watch list. House Speaker Paul Ryan was noncommittal. [TO RYAN] You said it's better to be safe than sorry. Is this something that you’d support?
HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN: This is a beating of all of this process. The task force is taking all suggestions from Democrats and Republicans.
CORDES: Nancy Cordes, CBS News, Washington.
