Trump tries to influence bipartisan Senate gun deal at last moment

Former president warns proposed legislation is a plot to ‘TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY’ after multiple Republicans negotiated the bill

Former president Donald Trump criticsed the bipartisan Senate gun deal that multiple Republican Senators negotiated the day after they voted to begin debate on the legislation.

Mr Trump posted his criticism on his new social media platform Truth Social and specifically criticised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the lead negotiator of the bill.

“The deal on ‘Gun Control’ currently being structured and pushed in the Senate by the Radical Left Democrats, with the help of Mitch McConnell, RINO Senator John Cornyn of texas, and others, will go down in history as the first step in the movement to TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY”, Mr Trump said. “Republicans, be careful what you wish for!!!”

Mr McConnell had charged Mr Cornyn to begin negotiations with Democratic Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined the negotiations as Mr Cornyn’s Republican partner. On top of that, a group of sixteen other senators joined the negotiation. The other Republicans included Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Mitt Romney of Utah; Roy Blunt of Missouri; Richard Burr of North Carolina; Rob Portman of Ohio; Susan Collins of Maine; and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

Last week, they announced a policy outline and on Tuesday released the text of the legislation, with Mr McConnell announcing his support. Later in the evening, the Senate voted on the motion to proceed to allow for debate.

All Republicans of the negotiating group – except for Mr Toomey who was not present – voted for the motion to proceed, along with Senators Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; Todd Young of Indiana and Mr McConnell.

On Tuesday, Mr Romney defended the legislation from criticism that it would restrict access to guns.

“It’s a gun safety bill”, he told reporters. “This does not attack the Second Amendment rights of American citizens. This says ‘how do we do a better job of background checks? How do we make sure that are in romantic relationships where there’s been a threat of physical violence are not able to carry out that violence? And how do we provide more mental health facilities in our schools? How do we have intervention centers with red flag laws or through other vehicles that are adopted that are adopted by various states?’”