Florida shooting survivor calls on Rubio to refuse future NRA donations
Florida school shooting survivor Cameron Kasky challenges Sen. Marco Rubio: "Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?" https://t.co/LiU42QFBEv #StudentsStandUp https://t.co/p6jlUGFxOs
— CNN (@CNN) February 22, 2018
A survivor of the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school confronted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for accepting donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and asked Rubio to no longer accept donations from the organization following the shooting.
Cameron Kasky, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., first called on Rubio to tell one of his classmates who intends to enter the military that “he’s going to live to make it to serve our country.”
“Not only are you going to live to serve our country, you and you and all of you have a chance to change our country,” Rubio responded. “Change not just our laws but the way we talk about our laws. So absolutely.”
Kasky then asked Rubio if he would commit to no longer accepting donations from the NRA.
{mosads}“Senator Rubio, can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA in the future?” Kasky asked.
Rubio didn’t directly answer, telling Kasky that “people buy into my agenda.”
“I do support the Second Amendment. And I also support the right of you and everyone here to be able to go to school and be safe,” Rubio said. “And I do support any law that would keep guns out of the hands of a deranged killer, and that’s why I support the things I have stood for and fought for.”
“The influence of these groups comes not from money, the influence comes from the millions of people that agree with the agenda,” he continued.
“Wait, hold on,” Kasky responded. “So, right now in the name of 17 people, you cannot ask the NRA to keep their money out of your campaign?”
Rubio again didn’t directly answer the question, saying, “If people want to support my agenda, they’re welcome to do so.”
“But they buy into my ideas, I don’t buy into theirs,” he said.
Rubio has an A+ rating from NRA and has received $3,303,355 in donations from the organization over the course of his political career.
The NRA has spent over $1 million on elections in the 2018 cycle, according to Open Secrets.
The organization also spent $30 million during the 2016 presidential race in support of then-candidate President Trump.
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