The RNC's Kayleigh McEnany on Parkland: The GOP Can Make Change
The deadly attack on a Parkland, Fla., high school last week mobilized not only students to demand action on gun control, but also may have spurred action in Washington.
On Tuesday, President Trump asked the Department of Justice for regulations that would ban so-called “bump stocks.” It’s a move that Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany says shows the issue doesn’t have to be a partisan one.
“Our party can make change. Just because you’re pro-Second Amendment, just because you are with the NRA or seeing money from the NRA, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to do everything possible to avert tragedies like this,” she told Cheddar. “That’s why you’re seeing Republican lawmakers talk about background check systems and Republican lawmakers also talking about bump stocks. These are things that are compatible with the Second Amendment.”
Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, an attack that left 17 dead and more than a dozen injured.
In the wake of the attack, several students have emerged as advocates for gun control, organizing marches to local and federal government offices and addressing what they saw as President Trump’s inadequate response to the events.
Over the weekend, Trump expressed support for a bipartisan bill introduced by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) to fix the background check system. That legislation was prompted by a shooting at a Sutherland Springs, Tex., church in November. The “bump stock” bill meanwhile, also bipartisan, came after the Las Vegas attack in October, in which a shooter used the devices to make a semi-automatic rifle act like a machine gun.
McEnany, who’s from the state of Florida, says that gun control regulations have to be a joint effort between states and the federal government.
“This has to be a multi-pronged approach,” she said. “We also need to look at mental health. We also need to look at the missed warning signs at the FBI, the fact that they were called and proper protocol wasn’t followed.”
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rnc-spokeswoman-kayleigh-mcenany-republicans-are-pro-second-amendment-anti-tragedy).
Autumn Peltier, an indigenous water activist, joined Cheddar News to talk about the lack of access to clean water among indigenous communities in Canada. “I say the government to hold themselves accountable for the promises that they make because Canada and indigenous people have a long history of broken promises and they still continue to this day to keep breaking promises with the nation's people," she said. "Less talk and more action is very much expected from me."
Robert Bonnie, farm production and conservation undersecretary for the USDA, spoke to Cheddar about climate-smart strategies to help farmers reduce carbon emissions from agriculture. "We share the costs of installing those practices on their lands in ways that will protect the climate and maintain agricultural productivity, and we're also partnering with farmers to draw in private investment in greenhouse gas emissions reductions provided by agriculture and forestry," he said. The hope is to get farmers and ranchers to produce climate-smart commodities to lessen the impact of climate change.
Cheddar's J.D. Durkin caught up with the head of NASA Bill Nelson, a former senator, who feels one thing that seems less rancorous on Capitol Hill these days is the work of the space agency.
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Queen Elizabeth II was marking her 96th birthday privately Thursday, retreating to the Sandringham estate in eastern England that has offered the monarch and her late husband, Prince Philip, a refuge from the affairs of state.
