There's No Reason to Believe Mitch McConnell Will Hear Gun Bills After Recess

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t call the Senate back from its August recess to hear legislation on gun reform. Instead, he’s insisting on bipartisan discussions take place among senators and staffers before returning to the Russell Senate Office Building.

“The key to this is about making a law, not about making a point. I’ve tasked three of my committee chairmen with talking to their own members of their party, but the Democrats as well. We’re gonna have these bipartisan discussions, and when we get back, hopefully be able to come together and actually pass something,” McConnell told Terry Meiners of WHAS in Louisville on Thursday.

“I want to make a law, not see this political sparring going on endlessly,” he added.

Then McConnell went through the basics of how a law is passed. But in order to accomplish the basic task of governing ~bipartisan discussions~ need to occur. (Where was this need for bipartisanship when McConnell’s Senate was muscling Gorsuch and Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court hm?)

“That means these discussions need to occur. We’re going to begin the discussions during the August break, and when we get back hopefully we’ll be in a position to agree on things on a bipartisan basis,” McConnell said.

I fail to see how these bipartisan discussions can’t begin by calling the Senate back from recess. It’s not as if even his injury should prevent McConnell to return to Washington. Jason Chaffetz returned to the House after a foot surgery using a fucking scooter to get around the Capitol so he wouldn’t miss his chance to take away healthcare from The Poor. The late John McCain came back to the Senate DAYS after having a part of his brain (his brain!) cut out. McConnell can’t soldier through his shoulder injury to debate two bills that passed the House with the bipartisan support he says he craves?

According to McConnell, the Senate is incapable of operating as it should be — drafting, debating, passing/failing legislation — during the August recess and needs this time to discuss things in a bipartisan fashion. “If we did that, we’d just have people scoring points, and nothing would happen. There has to be a bipartisan discussion here about what we can agree on,” McConnell said.

Despite the weird lack of ability to operate in August, McConnell seemed to be intrigued by so-called “red flag” law proposed by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). The proposal would create a grant program for states to adopt a policy of taking guns away from those who could harm themselves or others, according to The Associated Press. Then, McConnell stated the obvious. “There’s also been some discussion around background checks. That’s been an issue that’s been around a while,” he told Meiners.

There’s no reason to believe that McConnell will send these bills to committee (the first step toward a floor vote), hold votes on these bills, or embrace actual gun reform, especially since he has this handy “bipartisan discussion” excuse.