On Thursday's CNN This Morning, reacting to a deadly mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, the show provided Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) an unchallenged forum to push for more gun control and lament that such legislation would likely be opposed by newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson. And, even though fellow Democrat Senator Jon Tester supports legislation to protect the gun rights of veterans, Senator Coons was allowed to mislead viewers on the issue.
After playing a clip of the mayor of Auburn, Maine, reacting to the murder spree in neighboring Lewiston that killed 18, CNN co-host Poppy Harlow brought aboard her guest as she misleadingly blurred gang-related mass shootings with the less frequent type that has a high death toll and is more difficult to predict. Harlow began:
Families in mourning this morning as police search for this man -- Robert Card -- identified as a person of interest. As of yesterday, the U.S. so far has seen more than 560 mass shootings this year alone, and it's not even the end of the year. That's according to the Gun Violence Archive. With us this morning, Democratic Senator of Delaware who has worked tirelessly on the issue of gun violence, Chris Coons.
Referring to an earlier interview with Congressman Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Harlow began by posing: "Let me ask you, Senator, a question that Phil just asked Representative Dusty Johnson, and that is: Is this just what Americans are going to have to accept, that this could happen to them any day?"
It didn't take long before the Democrat Senator fretted over efforts to protect gun rights for veterans:
Poppy, I certainly hope not. President Biden signed into law last year the biggest progress we've made forward on closing loopholes in the gun background check system, and investing tens of billions of dollars more in community mental health, but yesterday we took a vote on the floor of the Senate for relaxing the standards for access to guns for veterans who have been adjudicated mentally ill. Actually, I may be wrong. That may be a vote coming up today. We do have a country that is sharply divided in terms of our understanding of the limits on gun rights.
Co-host Phil Mattingly followed up by recalling that Republicans who supported the last set of new gun restrictions stated that they would be unwilling to support any further regulations, and posed: "There is no path here for anything else is there?"
The liberal Senator responded by accusing Speaker Johnson of being too conservative and unlikely to work with Democrats on guns:
There isn't, Phil, and that's maddening to those of us here who think there is more for us to do. And, frankly, after several weeks of chaos, the House is finally settled on a new Speaker who I look forward to getting to know, but who by press accounts and what I've been able to find online about his record is far more conservative than any recent Speaker. That makes me even more concerned that we will genuinely struggle to make progress on improving gun safety for our countries -- for our families -- for our children.
After Harlow followed up by asking if Congress might pass more spending for mental health if it were not tied to new gun laws, the Delaware Democrat repeated his misleading claims that Republicans are trying to help veterans with mental illness get their gun rights back.
It was not mentioned that it's not just Republicans who support the measure regarding veterans. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) also supports the same measure which would protect veterans who have had to get help in dealing with their finances because of mental illness, contrary to how Senator Coons made it sound.
This episode of CNN This Morning was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN This Morning
October 26, 2023
8:51 a.m. Eastern
POPPY HARLOW: That was Mayor Jason Levesque of Auburn, Maine, describing how everyone in his tight-knit community knows victims of the two deadly mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, overnight. Families in mourning this morning as police search for this man -- Robert Card -- identified as a person of interest. As of yesterday, the U.S. so far has seen more than 560 mass shootings this year alone, and it's not even the end of the year. That's according to the Gun Violence Archive. With us this morning, Democratic Senator of Delaware who has worked tirelessly on the issue of gun violence, Chris Coons. Let me ask you, Senator, a question that Phil just asked Representative Dusty Johnson, and that is: Is this just what Americans are going to have to accept, that this could happen to them any day?
SENATOR CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Poppy, I certainly hope not. President Biden signed into law last year the biggest progress we've made forward on closing loopholes in the gun background check system, and investing tens of billions of dollars more in community mental health, but yesterday we took a vote on the floor of the Senate for relaxing the standards for access to guns for veterans who have been adjudicated mentally ill. Actually, I may be wrong. That may be a vote coming up today. We do have a country that is sharply divided in terms of our understanding of the limits on gun rights.
It was one of President Biden's big accomplishments along with a bipartisan group here in the Senate last year that we move forward on closing the background check loopholes and improving gun safety. But there is so much more to do. No other advanced industrialized country has this challenge where day after day after day there are mass shootings all over our country. All of us should reflect on our willingness to commit ourselves to the safety of our children -- our schools -- our communities. If you can't go to a bowling alley or a movie theater -- a synagogue or a church without having to worry about an armed assault, then frankly we are not protecting our own people in the ways that we should.
PHIL MATTINGLY: Senator, just to kind of put a finer point on this, to Poppy's question, in the wake of the bipartisan gun law which is, as you note, the most significant in decades, every Republican who co-sponsored that bill with you almost to a co-sponsor -- not all of them -- said there is no appetite for anything else, period, end of story -- guys you work with, folks that you think highly of. There is no path here for anything else is there?
SENATOR COONS: There isn't, Phil, and that's maddening to those of us here who think there is more for us to do. And, frankly, after several weeks of chaos, the House is finally settled on a new Speaker who I look forward to getting to know, but who by press accounts and what I've been able to find online about his record is far more conservative than any recent Speaker. That makes me even more concerned that we will genuinely struggle to make progress on improving gun safety for our countries -- for our families -- for our children.
HARLOW: You say "no appetite" for any more gun violence prevention law specifically. And you're right -- Speaker Johnson did vote against that bipartisan bill last year that you mentioned. But what about just mental health? Because this man spent two weeks this summer in a mental health facility. Do you think there's any appetite writ large for more mental health aid if you don't connect it to guns?
SENATOR COONS: Well, it's important, Poppy, for us to distinguish between these two fields because there are millions and millions of Americans with mental health needs that are underfunded where they have difficulty accessing services that have no connection whatsoever to gun violence. But in this particular instance, that clearly -- it seems to from press accounts -- have been the causal factor. That's why I highlight the amendment by Senator Kennedy that's part of the mix of amendments that we are going to have to vote on before we move forward on our appropriations bill. It explicitly reduces the restrictions on veterans who have been adjudicated mentally ill from being able to access guns. For decades, that's been in place.
If a court rules that you are too much of a danger to yourself and others to have access to guns, that strikes me as a pretty good predictor that you should not be involved in gun ownership or gun purchases, yet there is a significant group of Republicans here in the Senate trying to roll that back. That would be the biggest reduction in gun safety -- the biggest reduction from folks who are on the background check list in decades. So it's alarming that we have such a deep division between our parties in the intersection of gun safety and mental health. And I think it is a bad predictor of our political direction soon. Some of the hardest meetings I've ever been in at home in Delaware was with the parents of young children who, in their first year of school, had to do active shooter drills -- something we did not grow up with -- something that now is a daily reminder to school children that their communities, their parents, their national leadership is not doing enough to keep them safe.
MATTINGLY: Senator Chris Coons, we appreciate your time as always, sir. Thank you.
