WASHINGTON �� Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that President Donald Trump has an obligation to get behind the effort to enact stronger gun-control laws.
Graham, R-S.C., said Trump needs to make a proposal to Congress on gun control and school safety, and that Republicans must work with Democrats to get legislation passed after the school shootings last month in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed.
"If we don't, we're going to get hurt because most Americans believe we should solve problems that Americans are facing like gun violence and school safety problems," Graham said of Republicans on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "If we don't take this up and Democrats don't work with us, we will all suffer, and we should."
Trump cheered gun-control advocates during a White House meeting Feb. 28 with Republican and Democratic lawmakers. He stunned both sides by endorsing expanded background checks, raising the age limit for buying some firearms and keeping the mentally ill from obtaining weapons.
The White House appeared to backpedal on those comments after a meeting the next day between Trump and the National Rifle Association's top lobbyist, Chris Cox, who said on Twitter that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence "don't want gun control." Trump posted: "Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!"
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that Trump is not "fully on board" with a background-check proposal by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. West Virginia Democrat. She told Fox News that Trump won't weigh in again what legislation he would sign until he sees what lawmakers produce.
Trump's initial support for gun-control measures reflect his political instincts that Republicans will be hurt in November's midterm elections if they don't pass legislation, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on ABC's "This Week."
"He knows the mood of the country has shifted such that he and his party are going to pay a huge price at the polls in 2018 and 2020 if they don't start supporting things like universal background checks," said Murphy, a proponent of gun-control legislation.
Asked on CNN whether Congress will do nothing on guns, Manchin said, "It's a high probability that could happen if this thing goes mute." Still, the students from Parkland are keeping the pressure on, he said.
"We see a movement we have never seen before," Manchin said.
