A former speechwriter for Barack Obama said on Sunday via Twitter that Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) has “offered nothing” in the way of solutions to America’s gun-violence problem, despite the fact that the Florida lawmaker has proposed six pieces of legislation in the wake of the most recent mass shooting.
I agree with Pat Toomey (R-PA) on almost nothing but give him credit for putting forward a bipartisan bill on background checks in 2013.
Marco Rubio voted against that bill and has offered nothing. He’s getting brutalized because both sides rightly suspect he’s a phony. https://t.co/fchvdnEKvO
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) March 25, 2018
Jon Favreau, who founded Crooked Media after leaving the White House, quickly modified his criticism of Rubio after a number of Twitter users pointed out that the Florida lawmaker has endorsed two existing bills and proposed a number of novel pieces of legislation. After learning that Rubio endorsed the Fix NICS bill and the STOP School Violence Act, Favreau pointed out that Rubio had not endorsed a specific bill that would expand background checks to include online sales and gun shows.
Let me know when @marcorubio signs on as a co-sponsor to Manchin-Toomey, the extreme lefty gun control bill supported by about 90% of the American people. https://t.co/4o0HjeuL1j
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) March 25, 2018
In the wake of the Parkland shooting, Rubio proposed six bills, one of which would empower local police to lawfully seize an individual’s guns after a friend or family member reports the person might be unstable.
Rubio, who attended a televised gun-control discussion with survivors of the Valentine’s Day mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., has been widely vilified by gun control proponents. Parkland students attending the gun-control protest in Washington, D.C., on Saturday wore tags reading $1.05, a figure they say represents the amount of money Rubio receives from the National Rifle Association for every high-school student in Florida.
David Hogg, a Parkland student and committed gun-control activist, accused Rubio of accepting donations from the NRA in exchange for “every student’s life in Florida,” during his speech in front of the capitol building Saturday.