WASHINGTON – In the face of a nationwide crisis with devastating human impact and entrenched partisan divisions, a small group of Senate Republicans and Democrats pushed for high-risk bipartisan talks that looked unusually promising, until they collapsed. .
“Washington’s rhetoric has been impressive,” lamented Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a key Republican negotiator. “But the results have been pathetic.”
It was 2013 and Mr. Cornyn spoke of immigration, a political area where he had participated in several rounds of bipartisan talks. But the senator, a four-term Texan, may have been speaking with the same ease of negotiations in which he is currently a key player: an unlikely round of talks between a small group of Republicans and Senate Democrats to respond to the epidemic of armed violence. in America.
With these discussions reaching a critical stage, Mr. Cornyn plays a well-known role: the Conservative Republican in a room of centrists who can make or break a deal, and makes both sides guess, to some extent, about what it will be. His presence in the talks, for which he was chosen by Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky and a minority leader, means that the powerful arms control measures sought by President Biden and the top Democrats are off the table from the start.
“It has to be incremental,” Mr. Cornyn in an interview, and quickly turned down Mr. They are calling for measures that could not be approved by the Senate, such as renewing the federal ban on assault weapons, limiting high-capacity magazines or raising the age. buy a semi-automatic rifle at 21 of 18.
“I don’t think he moved the needle,” Mr. Cornyn on the president’s speech last week. “If we are to find a solution, it will have to come from the Senate and, frankly, I think the White House understands that. The president is not necessarily a unifying figure in current politics.”
Neither does Mr. Cornyn. With a top National Rifle Association score, he is viewed with suspicion by liberal activists who have long pushed for gun control legislation and see a warning story in the senator’s involvement in the negotiations. of past immigration.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. ‘success is ready and then blame the Democrats for being too much. partisan.
“Silver hair, silver tongue, moderate tone project seriousness; but his pattern is to be cynical and unserious, ”said Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigration group America’s Voice. “He pretends to want progress even if it undermines him.”
Democrats leading the arms talks insist that Mr. Cornyn this time is different. To get their support, they admit, any new legislation would have to be much more limited than they would prefer. But they also point out that it was Mr. Cornyn who in 2017 teamed up with Democrats to negotiate a package of improvements to the federal background check after a deadly shooting at the church in his home state.
“It was an example of Senator Cornyn’s ability to get through the aisle on a difficult topic and find something that made a difference,” said Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who leads the talks. on weapons of his party. The measure, known as Fix NICS, encouraged government agencies to provide more records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. A Texas church martial arts gunslinger martial record had not been filed for domestic violence, meaning it was not included in a review of gun purchases.
Mr. Murphy and other Democrats involved in the talks say his experience with Mr. Cornyn hopes that a consensus can be found, probably focused on the so-called red flag laws that allow weapons to be confiscated from people considered dangerous, as well as mental health measures, funding for school safety and adjustments to checks. background.
“He has made it very clear what he is not willing to do, and now we are just exploring what is possible,” Mr. Murphy, who has become a leading congressional voice on gun safety following the 2012 Sandy Hook School shootings at his home. state. “It is not willing to violate the rights of law-abiding gun owners. It is not willing to ban weapons.”
“I have a good idea of their areas of prohibition,” Mr. Murphy on Mr. Cornyn.
Texan has made it clear what he considers prohibited. When a Conservative radio presenter posted a tweet warning that the senator could support more restrictive gun laws, Mr. Cornyn recirculated the comment with a timely response: “It won’t happen.”
“This is a very divisive and emotional issue, but it is also a constitutional right that we are talking about,” he said. Cornyn in the interview. “I strongly believe that law-abiding citizens are not the problem here. They are people with mental health problems and criminals.”
Although he suggested that raising the age for buying assault weapons would not clarify the Senate, Mr. Cornyn said one idea she was exploring with colleagues was whether juvenile records, which are often closed or deleted, could be added to available information for background checks. . He suggested that this expansion could have prevented Uvalde’s 18-year-old gunman from getting his weapon.
“Nothing that happened in his past was part of this background check,” Mr. Cornyn. “We are contacting to see if there is a mechanism that can make this information available, as well as if they were an adult. They would approve or disapprove based on their criminal and mental health history. It’s a real gap.”
Democrats and Republicans say the support of Mr. Cornyn is key to expanding support for the legislation, given her credibility with colleagues. He was the No. 2 Republican in the Senate for six years, until his term limits forced him to leave in 2018. He is seen as an aspirant Republican Senate leader whenever Mr. McConnell retires.
“I think John is deeply motivated to come up with a set of common sense reforms that would make a difference,” said Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is participating in a series of gun security talks. the victims of Uvalde were its voters. “If we were successful in negotiating a package that John can sign, it will almost certainly go to the Senate and bring us additional Republican votes.”
Chosen in 2002 for an open seat, Mr. Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court judge and state attorney general, cuts a kind figure on Capitol Hill. This is in stark contrast to his most incendiary counterpart, Sen. Ted Cruz, who has briefly rejected new gun legislation.
Mr. Cornyn is a strength of the Judicial Committee, where she has been deeply committed to nominations, criminal justice reviews, and immigration policy, where commitment to a major rewrite of the laws has proved difficult.
Democrats are credited with making modest commitments, such as a recent patent abuse bill to prevent pharmaceutical companies from preventing cheaper generic drugs from entering the market. As for guns, he and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, won a provision in the Violence Against Women Act in March that requires federal authorities to notify local law enforcement when a person fails a background check in an effort to purchase a weapon.
“When he wants to get to common ground, he can,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who co-authored a patent bill with Mr. Cornyn and is also part of the bipartisan arms talks. “But the jury is still up for it.”
The conversations that Mr. Murphy is developed with two separate groups, one of which includes Mr. Cornyn and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat with whom Mr. Cornyn has worked closely on immigration issues.
Despite the Memorial Day break, participants said talks continued “from dawn to dusk” in a campaign to gather legislation as early as this week and that the break in Congress did not seem to slow the momentum, as he did it in the past.
Given the history of failures in the new arms proposals and the fact that Mr. Cornyn is seen as the gauge of what is acceptable to Republicans, no one is willing to declare that an agreement can be reached. But they do say they see opportunities.
“I’m ready to fail,” Mr. Murphy. “But every day we are closer to success, not further away.”
Mr. Cornyn has not promised anything, but says the effort is worth the negotiations.
“Hope springs forth forever,” he said. “I’m happy to be involved in something so important that it could, like our Fix NICS bill, save lives.”