Trump Blasts Beto On Guns, Blames Dem For ‘Harder’ Chance To Make A Deal

President Donald Trump on Wednesday took issue with Democratic candidate for president Beto O’Rourke, casting blame toward him for making it more difficult to pass a bipartisan gun deal.

“Dummy Beto made it much harder to make a [gun] deal,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “Convinced many that Dems just want to take your guns away. Will continue forward!”

Numbers from a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll demonstrates that a majority of Americans, 52 percent, actually support O’Rourke’s plan, which would require a mandatory federal buyback program for assault weapons. Around 44 percent opposed such a measure.

On the issue of further sales on assault weapons, 56 percent agree that a future ban on the sale of those products should be enforced, while 41 percent oppose such a ban.

Still, though a majority of Americans support O’Rourke’s position, it’s unlikely that a bill banning assault weapons, much less enforcing a buyback program, could pass a Republican-controlled Senate or get the signature of Trump.

When candidates say, "At least Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are pretending to be interested," shit, that is not enough. Neither is poll-testing your message. Gun violence is a life or death issue—and we have to represent the bold ideas of people all over the country. pic.twitter.com/jE2uiXaENZ

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 15, 2019

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A stronger system that requires a background check on every gun purchase (even private sales) seems much more likely to gain bipartisan support, but hopes of a deal are dimming due to the president’s inaction.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has already stated he won’t bring such a bill, already passed in the House, to the Senate floor unless Trump signals support for it, Politico reported. Trump had stated previously his endorsement of stronger background checks in the wake of recent mass shootings, but seemed to walk those comments back a bit in the days after.

In the past couple of weeks, his position on where he’d like to take the gun debate has been unclear.

On Monday, Trump signaled skepticism on his social media posts of the background check bill, CNN reported, asking in his tweets, “Is this just a ploy to TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY?”