President Joe Biden told Jimmy Kimmel he has no plans to issue an executive order on gun control, prompting the late night host to tell the president he needs to ‘start yelling at people’ to get legislation passed.
Biden and Kimmel discussed gun control while taping the late-night segment just days after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which 19 students and two teachers
At the top of the interview, Kimmel asked: ‘Do you mind if I ask you some serious questions?’ Before diving straight into asking why nothing had been done about gun violence since Biden had taken office.
‘Well, I think a lot of it’s intimidation by the NRA [National Rifle Association],’ Biden said. ‘Look, this is not your father’s Republican party. This is a MAGA party,’ he added, referencing former president .
‘It’s a very different Republican party, and so you find people who are worried, I believe, that if they vote for a rational gun policy they’re going to be primaried and they’re going to lose in a hard-right Republican primary,’ Biden said.
Kimmel was quick to interrupt the president and push back at certain points of the interview, including when Biden spoke of his working relationship with Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell.
Seemingly looking for more direct answers, at one point Kimmel asks Biden: ‘Can’t you issue an executive order? Trump passed those out like Halloween candy.’
While the president noted he has issued some executive orders, but became firm in his stance that he did not want to take after his predecessor, noting he did not want to ’emulate’ Trump’s ‘abuse.’
‘I don’t want to emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority,’ Biden said on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
‘I mean that sincerely because I often get asked — look, the Republicans don’t play it square, why do you play it square? Well, guess what. If we do the same thing they do, our democracy will literally be in jeopardy.’
Later in the interview Kimmel, an outspoken gun control advocate, told the president: ‘I think you need to start yelling at people.’
Biden seemed to object, noting that the country is still suffering from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Still, Biden said he remains optimistic about the future of the country.
Kimmel then cut in: ‘Why are you so optimistic? It makes no sense.’
Biden replied that young people give him hope, saying the ‘best educated, least prejudiced, most giving generation in American history. This generation is going to change everything. We just have to make sure we don’t give up.’
Biden dropped by Kimmel while in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, a regional conference to discuss important issues like migration and climate change with neighboring countries.
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