(WASHINGTON) — While the nation’s latest mass shooting at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee, seems sadly all too familiar — so, too, are the now routine responses from congressional lawmakers of both parties.

Despite shock over more schoolchildren being gunned down by a mass shooter, politicians in Washington quickly returned to arguments that have become standards in a deadlocked debate.

Even President Joe Biden seemed resigned, telling reporters Tuesday he “can’t do anything except plead with the Congress to act reasonably.”

“Don’t tell me we can’t do more together,” Biden added later, sounding more hopeful at an event in North Carolina. “I again call on Congress to pass the assault weapons ban, pass it. That should not be a partisan issue. It’s a commonsense issue. We have to act now.”

He added, “People say, ‘Why do I keep saying this if it not happening?’ Because I want you to know who isn’t doing it — who isn’t helping — to put pressure on them,” referring to the GOP.

Democrats like Biden once again called on what they refer to as “reasonable Republicans” to join them in passing more gun safety measures while Republicans once again slammed Democrats for trying to exploit the tragedy for political purposes.

Republicans, avoiding or dismissing questions about new restrictions on assault weapons, instead advocated for ramping up school security. More and more they cite “mental health” as the real problem and called for prayer, not gun bans.

“The first thing in any kind of tragedy is I pray. I pray for the victims. I pray for the families. I get really angry when people try to politicize it for their own personal agenda, especially when we don’t even know the facts,” House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise said Tuesday.

“Let’s work to see if there’s something that we can do to help secure schools,” he continued. “It just seems like on the other side, all they want to do is take guns away from law-abiding citizens before they even know the facts.”

“We’ve talked about the need to improve mental health in this country, and that’s been a driver of a lot of these shootings as well,” Scalise added, hitting many GOP talking points.

Senate GOP leaders were asked Tuesday afternoon if Republicans “risk looking out of step” when a majority of the country supports reforming federal law around guns.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota echoed Scalise, deeming any discussion of new gun safety legislation “premature.”

“Our thoughts are with the families, the victims with the community. We are grateful for the quick rapid response of law enforcement, and I think with respect to any discussion of legislation, it’s premature. There’s an ongoing investigation. And I think we need to let the facts come out,” he said.

When a reporter followed up by citing the number of mass shootings already this year, Thune deflected.

“When we get the facts in from this current investigation, we’ll have a better assessment of that — but I think right now, it’s just premature to talk about it. And I think there are a lot of grieving, hurting families in Nashville,” he said.

Democrats, at the same time, attacked Republicans, claiming they place more importance on keeping widespread access to assault weapons than on protecting kids at school.

“It’s an outrage that we can’t find a handful of Republicans willing to put people over extremism on the far right,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., following Scalise’s press conference. “The fact that the talking points Republicans use today are exactly the same that they used in December of 2012. It’s alarming. It’s disappointing. It’s just sad. And that’s just who the Republican Party is today,” he added.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were no known new bipartisan discussions on gun safety in Washington — and there’s little appetite for such a move as Republicans hold a majority in the House. In the Senate, Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to join them in order to pass meaningful reform.

The last major action from Congress on gun reform was last June, just over a month after the deadly Uvalde School shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. While it was nowhere near what Democrats or Biden had hoped for — with provisions like universal background checks left out — the legislation’s passage broke a decades-long stalemate in Congress.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a key negotiator in last year’s bipartisan effort, told CNN on Monday that, in his view, any new congressional action is not in the picture.

“I would say we have gone about as far as we can go — unless somebody identifies some area we didn’t address, but the president just keeps coming back to the same old tired talking points,” Cornyn said. “So he’s not offering any new solutions or ideas. If he does, I think we should consider them, but so far, I haven’t heard anything.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the response “devastating.”

“What do you say to those parents? What do you say to those families? You can’t say to them there’s nothing else that can be done. That’s not what their job is as legislators,” she said on ABC’s “GMA3.”

So why does Congress seem so unable to agree when Americans are demanding something be done?

Adzi Vokhiwa, federal affairs director at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, blamed the power of the gun lobby — including major campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association — for keeping lawmakers from considering more gun safety measures popular with Americans, such as universal background checks.

“Unfortunately, we do seem to see Republicans kind of parroting the talking points of the gun lobby. ‘Guns are not to blame. People are to blame,’ but the evidence shows us that our country’s gun violence epidemic is so unique because we have so few restrictions on access to guns,” Vokhiwa told ABC News. “They’re common sense, but a lot of Republicans just continue to be beholden to the gun lobby, which doesn’t want to enact any sort of law that would impact their profit margin.”

Vokhiwa said because assault weapons have a particularly devastating effect in a mass shooting scenario, “that’s why so many people in the gun safety movement really coalesce around that — why the president coalesces around that — and there’s certainly more work to do in terms of getting support in Congress.”

But, she said, “There are other policy proposals that would be just as, if not more impactful, than an assault weapons ban that do have broad support — like background checks, like extreme risk laws, like safe storage. So, even if we’re not at the point where we can pass an assault weapons ban, there are a lot of other things that we could do that would save lives from gun violence.”

An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in September 2019 found 89% of Americans support universal background checks and 86% support red flag laws. The poll found broad bipartisan support, as well; mandatory background checks and red flag laws won support from at least eight in 10 Republicans and conservatives, and as many or more of all others.

Another ABC News/Washington Post poll released in February found the public more divided over assault weapons with 47% supporting such a ban and 51% opposing it — reflecting a nine-point drop in support since 2019.

“Thoughts and prayers are far from our only option when it comes to addressing our gun violence crisis,” Vokhiwa added. “And I think the American people will hold Republicans accountable if they continue to refuse to act and if they value the gun lobby’s profit margin over the lives of American children in schools.”

Ultimately, she said, “As long as we have this divided Congress, it’ll be really hard to get something passed.”

One indication of how far apart lawmakers are is a bill introduced last month by Republican Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama to make the AR-15 assault-style weapon the “National Gun of America.”

Fellow House Republicans Rep. Lauren Boebert and George Santos were seen wearing AR-15 lapel pins.
 

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(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Tuesday that military readiness could be impaired by the growing list of senior military nominations being blocked by Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville over his opposition to a Pentagon abortion policy.

“Not approving the recommendation for promotions actually creates a ripple effect with the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be,” Austin said responding to a question from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., during a hearing on the Pentagon’s defense budget.

Tuberville has been blocking military nominations since last month, over a Pentagon policy that covers the travel costs of service members seeking abortions in states outside of where they are stationed if their base is located in a state that bans the procedure.

Austin spoke directly to Tuberville at the hearing over the military’s need to promote officials during “one of the most complex times” seen in recent years.

“I really implore you to reconsider and allow our nominations to move forward. It will make a significant difference for our force,” Austin said.

After the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., lambasted Tuberville for blocking the Pentagon promotions.

“GOP Senator Tuberville is inflicting unnecessary damage to our military by blocking the promotion of 160 officers,” Schumer said in a tweet.

“For what? So he can push the MAGA hard line on blocking women’s choice? Women in the military are more than capable of making their own healthcare decisions,” Schumer said.

“We’re in a situation now where we are beginning to see critical positions that are in jeopardy of not being filled,” Reed added.

“If this continues, we will have within a few months, no leadership in significant [parts of the military]. In fact, almost the entire Department of Defense will have acting people, will have temporary people, and we need leadership right now,” he said.

Tuberville remained steadfast in opposition, arguing the policy was implemented without input from Congress.

“Y’all got the American taxpayer on the hook to pay for travel and time off for selective abortions. And you did not make this with anybody in this room. Or Congress taking a vote. In fact, this contradicts what Congress has actually voted for,” he said.

“I’m not going to let our military be politicized. I want our military to be the strongest and the deadliest it has ever been. But I also want the administration to follow the law. As long as I have a voice in this body, Congress will write the laws. Not the secretary of defense, not the Joint Chiefs,” he said.

Austin said his decision was based on “strong legal ground,” although he agreed to cooperate with Congress.

“Almost one in five of our troops are women. And they don’t get a chance to choose where their station, so almost 80,000 of our women are stationed in places that where they don’t have access to non-covered reproductive health care,” Austin said.

“And I heard from our troops, I heard from our senior leaders, I heard from our chiefs, and also our secretaries and this policy is based on strong legal grounds. And it is not a law. It is a policy. And so, you know, we obviously don’t pass laws in the Department of Defense,” Austin said. “But again, I assure you that we have great respect for this body, Congress, and we will do everything within our power to make sure that we continue to work with Congress.”

Tuberville’s hold on nominations may also have an impact on the process to pick a successor to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark A. Milley whose tenure ends Sept. 30.

No name has been put forward yet for Milley’s replacement but it’s strongly believed that the two leading contenders are Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown and Gen. David Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps.

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(CAPE COAST, Ghana) — Vice President Kamala Harris started her Tuesday in Ghana looking toward what the future could hold for Africa — but on Tuesday afternoon, she looked back at the dark history of slavery on the continent, visibly moved by what she had just seen at Cape Coast Castle, where Africans were held captive before being sent to the Americas and Caribbean.

“Being here was — was immensely powerful and moving,” Harris said after touring the grounds, her voice breaking with emotion. “When we think about human beings retrieved by the hundreds of thousands, in this very place that we now stand. The crimes that happened here. The blood that was shed here.”

Harris had a speech prepared for the tour, placed on a stand before she walked out, but afterward an official in the vice president’s office said the remarks she actually gave were mostly off the cuff.

“There are dungeons here where human beings were kept. Men, women and children. They were kidnapped from their homes. They were transported hundreds of miles from their homes, not really sure where they were headed. And they came to this place of horror,” Harris said. “Some to die, many to starve and be tortured, women to be raped — before they were then forcibly taken on a journey thousands of miles from their home to be sold by so-called merchants and taken to the Americas, to the Caribbean to be an enslaved people.”

During her tour, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff entered the dungeons, first where the men were kept, and then looked out to the ocean where the ships would leave. Harris stood there for a moment, hands on her hips, at one point wiping her face.

As they walked down toward the dungeon for women and the “Door of No Return,” where slaves were forced onto ships, Harris was seen again overcome with emotion, wiping her face.

She emerged from the female dungeon with flowers, placing them in an adjacent room where others had also left them on the floor against a wall.

“We don’t know the numbers who died on their way to this place, the numbers who were killed during that passage on the Atlantic [Ocean],” she said after the tour.

But, she said, “The horror of what happened here must always be remembered. It cannot be denied. It must be taught. History must be learned. And we must then be guided by what we know also to be the history of those who survived in the Americas, in the Caribbean — those who proudly declare themselves to be the diaspora.”

The docent who accompanied the vice president at Cape Coast Castle said to reporters that she told Harris how the captives in the dungeons would look up, through the holes of the walls and ceilings around them to the sky beyond and pray for redemption.

The docent also talked of how some of the slaves would sing — and said that she sang for Harris, too, a song about the “problems of life” and wishing for death, “because that means freedom.”

In her speech at Cape Coast Castle, Harris said that “all these stories must be told. All these stories must be told in a way that we take from this place. The pain we all feel. The anguish that reeks from this place.”

“The descendants of the people who walked through that door were strong people, proud people, people of deep faith. People who loved their families, their traditions, their culture, and carried that innate being with them,” Harris said. Despite the horrors they endured, their descendants “went on to fight for civil rights, fight for justice, in the United States of America and around the world,” she said. “And all of us, regardless of your background, have benefited from their struggle and their fight.”

Harris, the first Black U.S. vice president, is on a weeklong trip to Africa, her first while in office. She arrived in Ghana on Sunday and will also travel to Tanzania and Zambia.

She said in a brief speech after arriving in Ghana that she wants to promote “increasing investments,” the “economic empowerment” of women, girls and young businesspeople, “digital inclusion” and food security in light of mounting challenges from climate change.

Earlier Tuesday, she spoke before thousands of young Ghanaians in front of the Black Star Monument, a major landmark in the heart of the capital city of Accra. There, she focused on the importance of women and girls being able to “fully participate in economic, political and social life” and praised “African ingenuity and creativity.”

“What happens on this continent impacts the entire world,” she told the assembled activists, entrepreneurs and students. “Seeing all of you here today makes me so optimistic and excited about this future.”

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