President Donald Trump shocked a bipartisan group of lawmakers Wednesday when he called for a series of changes to current gun laws, including comprehensive background checks and age limits for buyers.
And Florida Congressman Darren Soto told Cheddar that, if changes aren’t made, this will be a major issue come midterms.
“This will absolutely be one of those litmus test issues that can really swing a lot of voters,” he said in an interview before the president’s comments. “We’re talking about our young people keeping up their energy until the November elections.”
The latest developments come two weeks after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Survivors have sparked a nationwide #NeverAgain movement and even discussed gun control with high-profile Republican legislators, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and the commander-in-chief.
Soto said this isn’t the first time one group has been able to effect change at the ballot. He pointed to Democrat Margaret Good, who won Florida’s 72nd House district, a usually Republican area, the day before the Parkland, Fla., shooting.
“We saw that in the special election recently in Florida, that Republican women, suburban women who were independent, have come out in favor of Democrats,” he said. “They see that the Republicans aren’t willing to do anything to help protect our kids.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-darren-soto-speaker-ryans-gun-control-comments-a-real-shame).
Face to face for just over two hours, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin squared off in a secure video call Tuesday as the U.S. president put Moscow on notice that an invasion of Ukraine would bring enormous harm to the Russian economy.
Hawaii Flooding, Beijing Boycott & Disrupting Death
The White House says the U.S. will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing to protest Chinese human rights abuses.
The Los Angeles branch of Planned Parenthood chapter has been hit by a data breach involving about 400,000 patients, but the group says there is no indication the information was used “for fraudulent purposes.”
With rising numbers of COVID-19 cases predicted this winter, President Joe Biden is appealing for Americans to get their boosters and get behind his plan to tackle the new omicron variant through wider availability of vaccines and shots.
President Nayib Bukele announced last week that the Central American country plans to issue the world's first "Bitcoin bond" early next year.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is signaling it will uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion — and may go much further to overturn the nationwide right to abortion that has existed for nearly 50 years.
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, is cooperating with a House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
The wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison after pleading guilty to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire.
President Joe Biden is urging Americans to get vaccinated, including booster shots, as he seeks to quell concerns over the newly identified coronavirus variant named omicron.
