White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday defended President Trump’s apparent backtrack on strengthening background checks in the wake of a series of mass shootings in August, saying the shootings would not be used as an “excuse” for gun confiscation.
“We’re not going to allow bad actors who should not have firearms in the first place to be the excuse for a bunch of liberals and socialists to confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens who have legally procured them,” Conway told “Fox News Sunday” guest host Bill Hemmer.
{mosads}“I’m not going to allow people who are constantly maligning and deriding our law enforcement to be in charge of public safety [and] public policy,” Conway added, offering no specifics.
After initially saying he supported universal background check legislation in the wake of shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Trump has since backed off of the idea, reportedly taking a call in which National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre told him the organization would not support the idea.
Conway insisted Trump “wants to do something all at once” regarding the response to mass shootings, adding that “there are pieces of legislation that already exist.”
“I want to look America’s other mothers in the face and say we need to look at the fact patterns. We have to look at what has happened and fix that for the next time,” she said before blasting former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) for vowing to confiscate AR-15 rifles in last week’s Democratic debate, which moderate Democrats have expressed concerns may be used as an attack for Republicans.