Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s 2020 reelection may help push him to allow a vote on gun control measures, according to billionaire gun control activist Michael Bloomberg.
In an interview Sunday on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” the former New York City mayor noted that the Kentucky Republican may be vulnerable.
“Mitch McConnell is up for reelection, and he's running against somebody who, I'm told, is an attractive candidate,” he said. “Mitch McConnell is going to look and say, ‘What does the public want as well?’ So I am optimistic that even Mitch will change his mind… “I hope so.”
Bloomberg said he also doubts that the powerful National Rifle Association has the needed clout to stop universal background checks for gun owners in the wake of increasing mass shootings.
“The NRA takes no prisoners whatsoever and they lost 21 seats in the House,” he said. “Flipped the House. And so now is the time to start working and helping the Republicans to see the light, because I don't think this is a partisan issue.”
Bloomberg, a political independent, said Democratic progressives in the party will have to “earn their spurs.”
“I'm not a believer that, ‘oh, there's a new generation coming along and they own the right to set the agenda.’ I think you earn your spurs,” he said. “And you earn the right to set an agenda by showing people that what you've been doing is working.”
“I think there's an awful lot to be said for experience and accomplishment,” he added. “There's a value to having been there, done that, and to understand if there was simple solutions to complex problems we would have solved those problems.”
According to Bloomberg, “the public wants evolutionary change, not revolutionary change.”
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