Enraged President Obama Rips Senate GOP ‘and don’t forget the Four Dems’ For Blocking Background Checks

Before

Enraged Obama Rips Senate GOP For Blocking Background Checks

 A visibly angry President Obama tore into Senate Republicans on Wednesday for blocking a vote on legislation to expand background checks on gun sales, accusing opponents of the measure of deliberately lying to derail its passage.

After!  Thank You GOP and Dems for stopping him!!!

The Senate on Wednesday defeated a vital background check amendment seen as the linchpin to Democrats’ gun control bill, dealing a major setback to President Obama — who lashed out at opponents in unusually blunt terms during remarks from the Rose Garden. 

“All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” Obama said, accusing the gun lobby of lying about the bill.  

The vote was 54-46, with supporters falling six votes short of the required 60-vote threshold. 

The failure of the background check proposal authored by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., now imperils the entire legislation. The proposal would have expanded background checks to gun shows and Internet sales while exempting personal transactions. The amendment was aimed at winning over reluctant conservatives, who were opposed to the more stringent background check plan in the existing bill. 

It’s unclear where supporters will go from here. They could try to vote again, or craft an alternative piece of legislation. 

Obama vowed to press on, saying the vote was “just round one,” while decrying those he claimed “caved” to political pressure. 

“The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill,” Obama said. He said the claims “upset” some gun owners who in turn “intimidated” senators. 

“There were no coherent arguments as to why we couldn’t do this. It came down to politics,” he said. 

In a statement, Manchin said that while he is disappointed in the outcome of today’s vote, that “this is not the end of the debate.”

Opponents, which included a few Democrats, voiced concern that the proposal would infringe on Second Amendment rights by imposing a burden on those buying and selling guns. They claimed the proposed system would not have prevented Newtown, and would not stop criminals. They also voiced concern about the possibility that the expanded system could lead to a gun registry, though the amendment language prohibits this. 

The NRA said in a statement that the amendment “would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution.”

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats hammered Republicans for not voting in support and vowed to press forward. Read more: