Sen. Joe Manchin, who met last week with President Donald Trump to discuss gun control measures, said Tuesday he's "very encouraged" that the president will do the "right thing" on gun control and background check measures, but without a solid commitment from the president, there will be no legislation.
"There's no commitment, not at all," the West Virginia Democrat told CNN's "New Day." "There's a commitment to continue to work, and I appreciate that. I'm working with the president and his staff, and we have differences. We'll talk those differences out."
Without Trump's support though, there will be no "common gun sense" legislation passed, said Manchin.
"I don't believe my Republican colleagues will be able to move without his cover," said Manchin, adding that he told Trump he's in no danger of losing his base over the issue because many of them also support gun background checks.
Manchin said he and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., wrote a bipartisan bill back in 2013, and there are other pieces of good legislation.
Later in the morning, Manchin explained to Fox News' "America's Newsroom" that their bipartisan bill "has over 85 percent approval and that's with gun owners and everyone else saying if you go to a commercial transaction, gun show, or on the Internet, don't you think you ought to know who wants to buy that gun and for what purpose and what their background is?"
Manchin told CNN that he's a "proud gun owner" and a law-abiding one, and he wouldn't sell any of his guns to a stranger or to someone mentally ill, and many other gun owners feel as he does.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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