Thursday, Mar. 1, 2018

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

[1] This is the Daily.

[2] Today, President Trump stuns lawmakers with his calls for gun control and his disregard for the NRA.

[3] They have great power over you people, he said.

[4] They have less power over me. And Hope Hicks says she's leaving the Trump administration one day after testifying that her job requires telling white, for the president.

[5] It's Thursday, March 1st.

[6] So good afternoon.

[7] This is a very important subject, and it's happening, I think, at a critical time.

[8] Mike, there's this meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

[9] What's going on?

[10] Well, it was really remarkable.

[11] This was a discussion that the president hosted in the Roosevelt room at the White House with a bunch of Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate.

[12] Mike Shear watched the meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

[13] The ostensible reason was, to kind of discuss possible solutions, possible responses to the tragedy that happened down in Florida a couple weeks ago.

[14] We now have to do so.

[15] We have to act.

[16] We can't wait and play games.

[17] Directly on his left is Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, one of the leading proponents of gun control measures.

[18] On his right is Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican leader in the Senate and, you know, a real sort of hardcore gun rights kind of.

[19] and then, you know, around the table, other members.

[20] We're determined to turn our grief into action.

[21] I really believe that.

[22] I think that the people at this table want it.

[23] I mean, I see some folks that don't say nice things about me, and that's okay.

[24] Because if you turn that into this energy, I'll love you.

[25] So how does this meeting start?

[26] Well, it starts.

[27] I think as many meetings with Trump starts, which is sort of a soliloquy by the president.

[28] And he launches into a discussion about how we have to get something done.

[29] We can't just talk and talk and talk and talk.

[30] And then he sort of ticks through his issues, the mental health.

[31] We have to confront mental health.

[32] There's never been a case that I've ever seen.

[33] I'm sure everybody would feel the same.

[34] Where mental health was so obviously 39 different red flags.

[35] I mean, everybody was seeing him.

[36] He talks about the idea of improving the defense of schools.

[37] You've got to have defense, too.

[38] You can't just be sitting ducks.

[39] And that's exactly what we've allowed.

[40] people in these buildings and schools to be.

[41] You know, as you sort of settle in to watch it at the very beginning, you don't necessarily expect it to kind of veer the direction that it did.

[42] I'm the biggest fan of the Second Amendment.

[43] Many of you are.

[44] And then he says, but...

[45] I'm a big fan of the NRA, but I had lunch with them, with Wayne and Chris and David.

[46] And he goes on to describe the lunch that he had over the weekend with the leadership of the NRA, with Wayne LaPierre, the highly controversial and well -known CEO of the NRA, and also Chris Cox, who's their chief lobbyist.

[47] And, you know, the but is...

[48] It's time.

[49] We're going to stop this nonsense.

[50] It's time.

[51] And that's the hard turn that I think nobody in that room had expected.

[52] Right.

[53] Right.

[54] I mean, it's especially striking because historically the biggest fans of the Second Amendment do not say, I'm a big fan of the NRA, but.

[55] There's no but.

[56] There's no but.

[57] If there's one characteristic for the NRA over the last, at least the last decade or two, it's been absolutism, right?

[58] It's been this idea that you can't give an inch because if you give an inch, they're coming for your guns and government is going to take away your right to bear arms.

[59] And the idea that a Republican President of the United States says, I love the NRA, but, I mean, that's a pretty remarkable moment.

[60] With that, I think I'd like to start.

[61] Maybe I'll ask John, you can start off, and then we'll go back in.

[62] So talk me through what happens next?

[63] Well, next, Trump throws it to the room.

[64] He essentially invites the members of Congress that are sitting around him to give him their ideas.

[65] And they do.

[66] So Senator Murphy and I in 46 Senate colleagues on a bipartisan basis have what we think is they start.

[67] You have Senator Cornyn talk about a bill that he has to help strengthen the data in the background check system.

[68] You have senators Toomey and Mansion talking about their universal background check proposal that has been on the table for a long time.

[69] Diane, do you have something?

[70] Well, I do, Mr. President.

[71] You have Senator Feinstein talking about assault weapons.

[72] I would be most honored if you would take a look at it.

[73] I will.

[74] I will.

[75] And we will get it to you and let us know what you think of it.

[76] I will.

[77] Thank you.

[78] Thank you very much.

[79] Essentially, the president's response to all of it, Democrat or Republican, it sort of seems not to matter.

[80] But his response to all of it is more, yes.

[81] It would be so beautiful to have one bill that everybody could support as opposed to, you know, 15 bills, everybody's got their own bill.

[82] But if we could have one terrific bill that everybody started by the people around this table.

[83] And how are lawmakers in the room reacting to the president, kind of vacuuming all this up?

[84] Well, it depends on which party they're in.

[85] The Democrats, as it goes along and as they see the president, not swatting down their ideas, they become energized.

[86] You could just tell the energy in the room among the Democrats was palpable.

[87] The Republicans, on the other hand, were stone -faced.

[88] I mean, you could sort of see them trying to figure out what is happening here.

[89] And Senator Cornyn was silent.

[90] You could just sort of see them not quite knowing.

[91] How do you tell the president, know, Mr. President, you're wrong on this, because the president didn't seem to be in that mode.

[92] The president seemed to be in the mode of, give me more, I'll take all of this.

[93] And what about Senator Dianne Feinstein?

[94] I think of her as this perpetually disappointed figure fighting for gun control for years when it's seemed basically impossible to have even the smallest effect.

[95] Right.

[96] I mean, so she has been literally one of the most impassioned voices often to no end.

[97] So, you know, I think initially when she mentioned the assault weapons ban early in the meeting when the president turned to her.

[98] I think she didn't expect much, but you could see her whole mood kind of lightened.

[99] She was smiling.

[100] She was grinning, almost, and at one point...

[101] I put my case in writing, which I will give you, if I may, in letter form.

[102] She had a piece of paper with some statistics on it that she wanted to show him, and so she kind of leaned in her shoulder, and President Trump leaned over, and the two of them were looking at this paper as she was sort of describing the sort of statistics that she wanted to show him.

[103] This is when the 10 -year assault weapon ban was in, how incidents and deaths drop.

[104] When it ended, you see it going up.

[105] It was just one of these moments where, like, they looked like partners almost.

[106] If you didn't know any better, you could imagine a president and a senator who, you know, have long been friends.

[107] and, you know, because it sort of physically looked like that kind of dynamic.

[108] Joe and Pat, you're going to have to discuss that.

[109] You'll sit down with Diane and everybody else, and you'll come up with something, and I think it, I really believe it has to be very strong.

[110] So I think the next interesting moment came on the issue of whether or not the minimum age for buying semi -automatic weapon, like the one used in the Florida shootings, whether the minimum age should be raised from 18 to 21.

[111] The president has, in the past, kind of embraced the idea.

[112] And in this meeting, he brings it up.

[113] I'll tell you what, I'm going to give it a lot of consideration, and I'm the one bringing it up.

[114] And a lot of people don't even want to bring it up because they're afraid to bring it up.

[115] But you can't buy a handgun at 18, 19, or 20.

[116] You have to wait you at 21.

[117] You can buy the gun, the weapon used in this horrible shooting at 18.

[118] And he's just incredulous.

[119] He's sort of looking at this logic.

[120] He said, this just doesn't make any sense.

[121] It doesn't make sense that I have to wait until I'm 21 to guys.

[122] a handgun, but I can get this weapon at 18.

[123] I don't know.

[124] And he launches into a kind of political analysis of that piece of legislation, which the NRA fiercely opposes, and he sort of acknowledges that.

[125] I can say that the NRA is opposed to it, and I'm a fan of the NRA.

[126] I mean, there's no bigger fan.

[127] I'm a big fan of the NRA.

[128] They want to do it.

[129] These are great people.

[130] These are great patriots.

[131] They love our country.

[132] But that doesn't mean we have to agree on it.

[133] Mike, given the extent to which the president is breaking from party orthodoxy here on guns, what's going on with his vice president, Mike Pence, who's sitting right across from him in this room and has historically been very loyal to the NRA.

[134] Right.

[135] I mean, this actually may have been my favorite moment in the whole hour, just because it was so strikingly different from what you would ever hear from a Republican.

[136] It went viral.

[137] Yes, go ahead, Mike.

[138] Well, in the category, you've spoken about Mr. President, gun, violence, restraining.

[139] The president recognizes his vice president, Mike Pence.

[140] The vice president begins talking about, are there ways that we can identify people who are a danger to themselves or a danger to others?

[141] To literally give families and give local law enforcement additional tools if an individual is reported to be a potential danger to themselves.

[142] He's very careful, as all Republicans are, to say, but of course we would only do that with the appropriate due process.

[143] due process, so no one's rights are trampled, but the ability to go to court, obtain an order, and then collect not only the firearms, but any weapons.

[144] And the president interrupts him.