President Biden made his first studio appearance on a midnight talk show Wednesday, discussing gun control and other issues with host Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles. The episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” opened with Kimmel asking why armed violence continued to plague the United States, noting that there had already been two dozen school shootings this year. Biden recalled a recent visit to Ovalde, Texas, where two weeks ago a gunman killed 19 children and two elementary school teachers at Robb – and where the president was urged to “do something!” “There is a lot of intimidation from the NRA,” Biden said, referring to the National Rifle Association, as to why there was no movement in federal gun legislation. Parliament on Wednesday night approved several arms control measures in response to recent shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo and elsewhere, but are unlikely to pass through the Senate due to opposition from the GOP. “This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Biden said, adding that he believed many Republican lawmakers feared that support for a “rational arms policy” would result in the defeat of a far-right challenger in the GOP by-elections. . At one point, Biden turned to his studio audience and urged them to make gun control a matter of vote. “You have to make sure that this becomes a matter of vote. It should be one of those issues where you decide your position on the issue of the senator or the candidate for Parliament or the Senate, on what to do with assault weapons. “What you say about these things will determine how I vote for you,” Biden said. “It should be one of those issues.” Parliament approved aggressive arms control measures by a vote of 223 to 204 on June 8. (Video: The Washington Post) Biden also defended his record when Kimmel – a Democratic donor who contributed to Biden’s 2020 campaign – pressed him because the government had failed. Biden said he had not issued more executive orders, including weapons, because he did not want to “imitate Trump’s abuse of the Constitution and constitutional power.” Kimmel backtracked slightly, saying many Democrats were frustrated because “we went out and voted.” “We have won the House, the Senate, the White House, obviously, and yet we have made very little progress on myself in terms of weapons, obviously, reproduction rights, voting rights, climate change – all of these things.” said Kimmel. Biden said his government had made limited progress on the climate and said it was considering executive orders it could issue if the Supreme Court were overthrown. Roe vs. Wade. But he also suggested that any new abortion restrictions could only be reversed at the ballot box. If Roe “It will cause a mini-revolution and many of these people will vote away,” he said. John Wagner contributed to this report.
