President Joe Biden and Jimmy Kimmel cut to the chase.
The president, 79, jumped into a discussion about gun control soon after he sat down on Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night, his first in-studio late night appearance as president.
“You were here in September 2019, and one of the things we talked about at length was gun violence. You said we needed to do something about gun violence, particularly when it comes to schools. Halfway through this year already, and there have been what, 27 shootings at schools?” the host, 54, began. “Why haven’t we done anything about this?”
“I think a lot of it is intimidation by the NRA. This is not your father’s Republican Party. This is a MAGA party,” Biden said. “It’s a very different Republican Party.”
On the state of the GOP, Kimmel countered, “It seems like the party has moved hard-right, but the people maybe haven’t moved hard-right. Because people overwhelmingly believe we should have serious background checks” – to which the audience applauded.
Pointing to the assault weapons ban he sponsored in 1994, Biden said that violence and gun crime dropped in the decade it was in effect – but that things changed for the worse immediately after the Bush administration didn’t reauthorize it.
“You could own assault weapons again. And guess what? Crime went up significantly,” the president said. “There is a direct correlation between the kinds of weapons that can be had [and crime].”
Turning to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last month which killed 21 people, including 19 students and two adults, Biden spoke about the heartbreaking trip to meet with the grieving community there.
“I met with every single family member, of all those kids, and the teachers, who were killed in Uvalde, Texas,” he recalled. “They stayed with me for almost 4 hours. Almost 200 of them, family and extended family. The stories they told. The pain on their faces.”
Interjecting, Kimmel pressed, “Can’t you issue an executive order? Trump passed those out like Halloween candy.”
“I have issued executive orders within the power of the presidency to be able to deal with everything having to do with guns, gun ownership… all the things that are within my power. What I don’t want to do – and I’m not being facetious – is emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority.
“And I mean that sincerely because I often get asked — ‘Look, the Republicans don’t play it square, why do you play it square?’ Well, guess what. If we do the same thing they do, our democracy will literally be in jeopardy,” he stressed.
Last week, the president and first lady Dr. Jill Biden visited Uvalde on the heels of an announcement from The Justice Department that it will conduct a review of the police response to the mass shooting at the request of Mayor McLaughlin.
“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events. The review will be conducted with the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing,” DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley issued in a statement on May 29.
“As with prior Justice Department after-action reviews of mass shootings and other critical incidents, this assessment will be fair, transparent, and independent. The Justice Department will publish a report with its findings at the conclusion of its review,” the statement noted.
The review is a crucial development as three days after the shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety director said that Chief of Police Pete Arredondo made the “wrong decision” in not confronting the shooter until more than 40 minutes after he entered the school.
The school district in Uvalde has opened an official account with First State Bank of Uvalde to support Robb Elementary families affected by the tragedy. People can send checks through the mail (payable to the “Robb School Memorial Fund”) or donate money through Zelle to robbschoolmemorialfund@gmail.com. People can also donate by calling 830-356-2273.
