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Does anyone remember a video clip from a few years back about Bill Clintons lobbyist talking about passing the 94 assault weapons ban completely screwed over the Democrats? I would like to have a link to that if anyone has it.
I found an article in the Atlantic that goes over the same words I recall.
We were out at a Senate retreat, he and I, and Mrs. Clinton were there, as was [George] Stephanopoulos. At the retreat he gives a speech. I’m sitting off the stage and [California Senator Dianne] Feinstein raises this question, “Where is the assault weapon ban in the Senate?” This woman is a senator on the Judiciary Committee asking the president of the United States. Up until this point I thought we were kind of slow-walking the assault weapon ban, given the politics of it. I thought that was a good idea—we’d react on the issue if we had to. He turns to me and he says, “Griffin, where is it?” I said, “It’s in the Senate Committee waiting for mark-up.” He knew she was trying to gin him up. I didn’t realize it at the moment. I just thought it was a stupid question, so I didn’t think anything of it. The next morning we’re on Marine One going back to the White House. We’re playing hearts or something, and all of a sudden he puts the cards down and says, “Why didn’t you brief me as to where this was?” I said, “Mr. President, it would be a ridiculous thing to brief you where all the legislation is. It would never occur to me that you would need to know the status of all of our proposed legislation when talking to senators who were responsible for the disposition of the legislation.” I asked, “Why would you feel you needed to know?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/when-bill-clinton-passed-gun-reform/488045/
And even found a podcast that has some of the audio which makes me think that I didn’t just imagine the video clip.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/episodes/the-takeaway-2018-02-27
Anyway I find the whole thing very interesting. It appears that the NRA had a huge base of voters that felt very strongly about firearms to the point that it contributed to the Democrats losing control of the House for the first time in like 40 years and Al Gore following up with casting the tie breaking vote to close the “gunshow loophole” probably caused him to lose his home state in the presidential election.
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