Pelosi and Schumer blast Trump as a 'prisoner to the gun lobby and the NRA'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement on Monday blasted President Trump over his response to two weekend mass shootings while calling for the Senate to reconvene and pass gun background check legislation.

In a joint statement, the two top Democrats criticized Trump for not mentioning anything in his speech on Monday about "strong background checks" after he tweeted his support for them earlier in the morning.

"It took less than three hours for the president to back off his call for stronger background check legislation," Pelosi and Schumer said, NBC News reports. "When he can't mention guns while talking about gun violence, it shows the president remains prisoner to the gun lobby and the NRA."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Pelosi and Schumer also said that the Senate must "immediately" come back into session in order to pass background check legislation that was previously passed by the House, with the Democrats also suggesting the public should ramp up the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow such a vote.

"The public must weigh in and demand passage of this legislation for the safety of our children," Pelosi and Schumer conclude.

Trump in his tweet on Monday had suggested tying the passage of background check legislation with immigration reform, though he did not get into specifics or mention whether he might support the House background check legislation. In his speech on Monday, Trump didn't bring up this proposal and said that "mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun."