(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) A triumphant Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has claimed that Republican support for the gun control bill that Congress sent to President Joe Biden’s desk today clears the way for more anti-gun legislation in the future.
Murphy appeared on All In With Chris Hayes to gloat about the passage of the so-called “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” which garnered support from 15 Republicans in the Senate — led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former majority whip John Cornyn — and fourteen Republicans in the House.
“There’s going to be somewhere between 15 and 20 Republican Senators who are going to vote for it, which I think sort of paves the way for even more progress in the future now that we have broken this logjam,” a jubilant Murphy told Hayes.
Murphy went so far as to predict that Republicans would benefit politically from their leftward turn on guns, suggesting that the bills passages means that the NRA “does not matter” anymore.
“What if [Republicans who vote for this] see political gain?” Murphy asked. “That’s gonna accrue to their political benefit.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., appeared on CNN to echo Murphy’s comments.
“I think it actually paves the way in the future to look at some of these other provisions,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “That’s why it’s so important to pass this bill on a bipartisan basis.”
Also playing a starring role in getting Republicans on board was Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who Murphy credited with countering his own “pessimism.”
“[Sinema and Murphy] cut a deal with GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina that will go down in the party’s annals,” Politico reported.
According to Politico, it is Sinema’s usual practice of putting an “ideological brake” on leftist excess in the Senate that has allowed her to persuade certain RINOs to get right with gun control.
