President Donald Trump has praised the NRA and its leaders as "Great People and Great American Patriots," but one student who survived the Parkland, Fla., school shooting wants you to know that the group's lobbyists are not patriots.
“Would American patriots try to buy democracy from the American people?” David Hogg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, asked in a Cheddar interview Friday.
“Will they lobby to implore them to make their voices more heard than others? Would they lobby American citizens to make sure that these children are murdered as a result of their inaction, because of [their] backing political figures?
“That’s not what I see as an American patriot. That's what I see as a coward and child murderer.”
The 17-year-old senior, a self-proclaimed Second Amendment supporter, is one of several Parkland students who’ve taken up the fight for gun control in the wake of last week’s attack, in which 17 people were killed.
And even though the #NeverAgain movement has drawn a lot of attention and support, Hogg doesn’t yet count it as a success.
“We’ve seen some reaction, but we haven’t seen literally any bills passed,” he said. “We’ve gotten people to pay attention. We need action though.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/parkland-survivor-and-gun-activist-david-hogg-talks-neveragain-movement).
California Governor Gavin Newsom is projected to keep his job. Around two-thirds of the votes have been reported, and roughly 64% of those votes are in favor of keeping Newsom as their governor.
Daniel Strauss, senior political correspondent at The New Republic, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss more about what Newsom's win means to both political parties moving into Midterm elections season.
The Department of Justice is suing Texas over the state's new abortion law that prohibits abortions after six weeks, well before many women even know they're pregnant. The lawsuit argues the law is unconstitutional under long-standing Supreme Court precedent. It was filed last week in federal court in Texas, but could go all the way to the high court within weeks. Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, discusses the DOJ lawsuit and what it could mean for other abortion laws across the country.
26 states have now fully vaccinated more than half of their population with Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts fully vaccinating at least two-thirds of their residents. These three states are among the ones with the lowest new Covid-19 cases per capita, but in states with low vaccination rates, hospitals are filling up again.
Dr. Rob Davidson, ER doctor and executive director of Committee to Protect Health Care, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss more.
The Biden Administration has officially extended a ban on a Trump-era policy that prohibits traveling with a U.S. passport to North Korea. The extension is expected to last until August 2022. The ban was initially enforced after the death of Otto Warmbier, who entered a vegetative state while in North Korean custody. Advocates against the ban argue that it has caused crippling impacts on Korean Americans who have not been able to reunite with their families back home. Senior Fellow at The Foundation For Defense of Democracies Anthony Ruggiero joined Cheddar's News Wrap to discuss more.
