As Senate Republicans prepare to potentially filibuster a gun-control bill, the Obama White House says such a maneuver could poision the negotiations.
“What the president wants is to sign a strong, bipartisan bill that has enforceable background checks,” Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer said on ABC’s This Week. “And we can get that done. One of the problems is that Senate Republicans, some Senate Republicans are insisting on a filibuster. They are insisting on trying to make it harder, to require 60 votes.”
“If you remember, during the State of the Union, with the families of Newtown in the audience, every member of Congress stood up and applauded when the president called for an up-or-down vote on these measures. Now that the cameras are off and they are not forced to look the Newtown families in the face, now they want to make it harder and filibuster it,” he continued. “We can’t have it. If we have a simple up-or-down vote, we can get this done.”