Written by Andrew Naughtie | June 02, 2022 | | | A week after the school massacre in Uvalde, the Republican opposition to any new gun safety legislation to combat gun violence has begun in earnest. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter asking the state legislature to form a committee to review steps and determine what actions could be taken to prevent another mass shooting, listing "school safety," "mental health," "social media," "police training" and "firearm safety" as lines of inquiry – but not anything to do with the availability and accessibility of guns.
Just as Mr Abbott sent his letter, four people were killed by a gunman who entered a medical clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reportedly opening fire with a pistol and a rifle. He is thought to have killed himself; his motives and particular targets, if any, are thus far unknown. Later that evening, a bomb alert thought to be linked to the shooter summoned police to the city of Muskogee. The test of the state of gun discourse is not whether the Tulsa shooting ups the pressure, but whether or not it is allowed to be just another entry on the growing list of mass shootings this year.
| | | Almost as soon as the shooting in Uvalde hit the news, Senator Kyrsten Sinema's statement of sadness was met with a storm of people pointing out her support for the filibuster. (One of those voices was Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego, who spoke with The Independent last year about potentially running against her in 2024). But now, Ms Sinema is part of a quartet – also featuring fellow Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas – who are trying to find a bipartisan agreement on gun safety. The negotiations will serve as the ultimate test of Ms Sinema's style of politicking. Plenty of Democrats are rankled by her prioritization of bipartisanship as well as her close friendships with Republicans – including hardcore 2020 election deniers like Representative Andy Biggs, whom she's known since their days in the Arizona state legislature. She teamed up with Senator Rob Portman of Ohio to lead negotiations on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which so far is by far the largest piece of domestic legislation Joe Biden has signed into law. But negotiating on bridges with a retiring Republican Senator is one thing; coming to a bipartisan agreement on guns, especially when Republicans consider the second amendment holy writ, is quite another. This will require herculean effort, not least in convincing at least ten Republicans to go against their base. If Ms Sinema pulls it off, she can add another notch to her belt and say her moderate independent style – she reportedly considers the late Senator John McCain a hero – helps her win Republicans and come to a consensus that would otherwise be impossible. She can then use a victory on gun legislation to push back against any left-wing challenger in 2024 by saying a progressive could never have gotten the GOP to buck the gun lobby. But the risks of failure are just as important. If the GOP ultimately pulls out of negotiations, progressives can say not only that Ms Sinema dashed their plans to pass Build Back Better, but that her relationships with Republicans don't even yield results that could be considered a return on the investment. Progressives have shown they are more than willing to put up a challenge to those seen as obstructing the larger Democratic agenda, as Representative Kurt Schrader's loss and the hotly contested primary in Texas's 28th District have shown. An example of this dilemma: on Tuesday, the quartet met and Mr Cornyn put out a seemingly optimistic statement and said the Senators had asked their staff to work together to discuss details. Then on Wednesday evening, conservative talk radio host Joe Paglirula tweeted that plenty of people had reached out to him worrying Mr Cornyn would "make gun laws more restrictive". Mr Paglirula said he would reserve judgment. In response, Mr Cornyn quote tweeted with three words: "Not gonna happen." | | | What else you need to know today | | | - Abortion providers and abortion rights advocates in Florida have filed a lawsuit in state court challenging the state's ban on abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy, arguing that the law – which threatens to jail doctors and makes no exceptions for rape or incest – violates a state constitutional provision guaranteeing a right to privacy, "including the right to abortion". Under current law, abortion patients in Florida can seek care up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, the standard established under Roe. Should the new law got into effect on 1 July, it will "prevent Floridians from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to decide whether to have an abortion prior to viability, causing irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law," according to the lawsuit.
- The Biden administration will today formally announce it is canceling $5.8bn in student loan debt held by borrowers who attended now-defunct Corinthian Colleges, a group of for-profit schools that faced federal and state investigations for fraud. The move marks the single largest discharge of student loan debt in the history of the US Department of Education, and comes as the administration remains under enormous pressure from progressive Democrats to cancel federal student loan debt across the board. Mr Biden has so far not signaled any particular willingness to go that far.
- New reports have detailed an extensive Republican operation to flood Democratic-leaning communities in Michigan with GOP-aligned poll watchers who could theoretically try to interfere with upcoming elections. While it is illegal for poll challengers to question the validity of votes for purely political reasons, there are other ways to use the position to jam up the electoral process, theoretically causing delays or intimidate people from voting by making challenges frequently enough that (often under-resourced) precinct staff cannot keep up. "[I]t's going to be an army," one GOP operative declared at a training session, according to video obtained by Politico. "We're going to have more lawyers than we've ever recruited, because let's be honest, that's where it's going to be fought, right?"
- John Hinckley, who shot Ronald Reagan and three others close to him in 1981, has been granted unconditional release after four decades. Until now, the would-be assassin has been living under supervision outside a mental health facility in Williamsburg, Virginia having been found guilty by reason of insanity in a 1982 trial. The federal judge who released him, Paul Friedman said he has shown no signs of active mental illness, violent behavior, or interest in firearms since 1983. "If he hadn't tried to kill a president," Mr Friedman remarked, "he would have been released unconditionally a long time ago."
| | | It's not just about insurrection, racial grievance and fealty to Donald Trump: the Republican Party as an institution is taking a culture-war position on every given news story, even those that have nothing to do with electoral politics. When the Depp-Heard trial ended mostly in Johnny Depp's favor yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee tweeted a GIF of the actor looking stoic in his Pirates of the Caribbean regalia – and Donald Trump Jr, never one to let a divisive issue go uninflamed, launched a rant against Amber Heard, saying he hoped the defamation verdict against the "terrible" actress would "end the effective rabid feminist notion that all men are guilty before being proven innocent that we've seen as of late." | | | Articles available exclusively to subscribers | | | The Independent has a 100% NewsGuard trust rating | | | Join the conversation or follow us | | | Please do not reply directly to this email. You are currently registered to receive The Independent's Inside Washington email.
Add us to your safe list of senders
. If you do not want to receive The Independent's Inside Washington email, please unsubscribe.
If you no longer wish to receive any newsletters or promotional emails from
The Independent, you can unsubscribe here.
This email was sent by Independent Digital News and Media Ltd,
2 Derry Street, London W8 5HF.
Registered in England and Wales with company number 07320345.
Read our privacy notice and cookie policy.
| | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.