NRA official after meeting: Trump supports ‘strong due process’

A top official with the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm, the NRA-ILA, said Thursday following an Oval Office meeting with President Trump and Vice President Pence that the pair “don’t want gun control.”

In a tweet, NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox also defended Trump as supporting “strong due process” a day after the president raised eyebrows among gun rights advocates with his call to “take the guns first, go through due process second.”

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“I had a great meeting tonight with @realDonaldTrump & @VP. We all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people. POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control,” Cox tweeted Thursday night.

I had a great meeting tonight with @realDonaldTrump & @VP. We all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people. POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control. #NRA #MAGA

— Chris Cox (@ChrisCoxNRA) March 1, 2018

Trump also acknowledged the meeting on Twitter, calling it a “good (great)” meeting but offering few details.

Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2018

The president stunned Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Wednesday during a meeting at the White House when he endorsed a Democratic “wish list” of gun control proposals, including raising the age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21 and confiscating guns from individuals deemed dangerous without following due process.

Trump also accused Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) of being “afraid” of the NRA while attempting to tout his own independence from the organization.

The NRA and its lobbying arm have faced massive criticism for their opposition to gun control in the days following last month’s shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

The confessed gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, legally obtained the AR-15 rifle allegedly used in the attack that left 17 students and faculty dead and more than a dozen others wounded.

At a CNN town hall last month, survivors from the shooting challenged NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch while questioning Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) on past campaign contributions from such groups.