WASHINGTON – Faced with a national crisis with devastating human casualties and established guerrilla divisions, a small group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate continued bipartisan talks with high stakes that seemed unusually promising – just as they collapsed.
“Washington’s rhetoric is impressive,” complains Texas Sen. John Cornin, a key Republican negotiator. “But the results are pathetic.”
The year was 2013, and Mr Cornin spoke about immigration, a political area in which he was involved in many rounds of bipartisan negotiations. But the four-term Texas senator could just as easily discuss the talks in which he is currently a major player: an incredible round of talks between a small team of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate in response to the U.S. gun violence epidemic.
Once these discussions reach a critical stage, Mr. Cornin plays a familiar role: the conservative Republican in a room of centrists who may make or break an agreement – and both sides have to guess to some extent what it will be. His presence at the talks – for which he was elected by Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and minority leader – means that the comprehensive arms control measures President Biden and senior Democrats are seeking are out of the table from the start.
“It must be gradual,” Cornin said in an interview, quickly dismissing Mr Biden’s insistence on steps that could not pass through the Senate, such as renewing the federal ban on assault weapons, restricting magazines with large capacity or age to purchase a semi – automatic rifle to 21 of 18.
“I don’t think that has moved the needle,” Mr Cornin said of the president’s speech last week. “If we can find a solution, it will have to come from the Senate, and to be honest, I think the White House understands that. The president is not necessarily a unifying figure in today’s politics. “
Neither is Mr. Cornin. With the highest rating by the National Arms Association, he has been 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 past immigration talks.
Proponents of legalizing millions of illegal immigrants and reviewing the system warn that it has perfected what it calls “Cornish fraud”, in which it appears to be engaging in serious political negotiations, but eventually withdrew when success is imminent. and then accuses the Democrats of being too many. partisan.
“Silver hair, silver tongue, moderate tone radiate seriousness; but his model is to be cynical and frivolous, “said Frank Shari, executive director of America’s Voice. “He pretends to want progress, even when he undermines it.”
Democrats in arms talks have insisted that Mr Cornin’s involvement is different this time around. To gain his support, they acknowledge, any new legislation would have to be much narrower than they would have preferred. But they also note that it was Mr Cornin who joined the Democrats in 2017 to negotiate a package of improvements to federal inspections following a deadly shooting at a church in his home state.
“It was an example of Senator Cornin’s ability to get to the bottom of a difficult subject and find something that made a difference,” said Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who is negotiating arms for his party. The measure, known as Fix NICS, encouraged government agencies to provide more records to the National System for Immediate Verification of Criminal Origin. A Navy dossier for a military court in the Texas Church on Domestic Violence was not presented, meaning it was not caught during a search for gun purchases.
Mr Murphy and other Democrats involved in the talks say their experience with Mr Cornin gives them hope that some consensus can be found, probably focused on so-called red flag laws, which allow the seizure of weapons from people who are considered dangerous, because as well as mental health measures, funding for school safety and adjustments to past checks.
“He has made it clear what he does not want to do and now we are just exploring what is possible,” said Mr Murphy, who became a leading voice in Congress on gun safety after the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting. his home condition. “He does not want to violate the rights of gun owners who obey the law. He does not want to ban weapons. “
“I have a good sense of his forbidden places,” Mr Murphy told Mr Cornin.
The Texan clarified what he considered forbidden. When a conservative radio host posted a warning on Twitter that the senator could support more restrictive gun laws, Mr Cornin issued a sharp 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,” Mr Cornin said in an interview. “I feel very strongly that law-abiding citizens are not the problem here. These are people with criminal and mental health problems. “
While suggesting that raising the age of purchase of assault weapons would not clear the Senate, Mr Cornin said one idea he was exploring with colleagues was whether juvenile documents, which are often sealed or deleted, could be added to the information available to verify the past. He suggested that such an expansion could prevent the 18-year-old shooter in Uwalde from getting his weapon.
“Nothing that happened in his past was part of that investigation,” Mr Cornin said. “We are looking to see if there may be a mechanism that can make this information available, just as if they were adults. They would either pass or not, based on their criminal and mental health. This is a real void. “
Democrats and Republicans say Mr Cornin’s support is essential to increase support for the legislation, given its trust in colleagues. He was the second Republican in the Senate for six years until term restrictions forced him to leave in 2018. He was seen as a contender for the Republican leader in the Senate when Mr. McConnell resigned.
“I think John is deeply motivated to come up with a common sense set of reforms that would change,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and participant in a set of gun security talks, noting that Uwalde’s victims were his. voters. “If we succeed in negotiating a package that John can sign, it will almost certainly pass through the Senate and bring us additional Republican votes.
Elected in 2002 to fill the vacancy, Mr. Cornin, a former Texas Supreme Court justices and attorney general, is downplaying a friendly figure on Capitol Hill. He is in stark contrast to his more inflammatory counterpart from the home state, Senator Ted Cruz, who briefly rejected new gun legislation.
Mr Cornin is a force on the judiciary, where he is deeply involved in nominations, criminal justice review and immigration policy, where the compromise on major rewriting has proved elusive.
Democrats acknowledge that he has reached modest compromises, such as a recent patent abuse bill aimed at preventing pharmaceutical companies from blocking cheaper generic drugs. On guns, he and Sen. Chris Koons, a Democrat from Delaware, 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 check in an attempt to buy a gun.
“When he wants to reach a common language, he can,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut who co-authored the patent bill with Mr. Cornin and is also part of the bipartisan arms talks. “But the jury is not yet aware of that.”
Mr Murphy’s talks took place with two separate groups, one of which included Mr Cornin and Senator Kirsten Cinema, an Arizona Democrat, with whom Mr Cornin worked closely on immigration.
Despite the Remembrance Day break, participants said talks had continued “from dawn to dusk” in a bid to legislate as early as this week, and that a break in Congress did not appear to slow the momentum as it had in the past.
Given the history of failures in the new weapons proposals and the fact that Mr Cornin is seen as a benchmark for what is acceptable to Republicans, no one is ready to say that an agreement can be reached. But they say they see an opportunity.
“I’m ready to fail,” Mr Murphy said. “But every day we get closer to success, not farther.”
Mr Cornin has made no commitment, but says the negotiations are worth the effort.
“Hope springs forever,” he said. “I am happy to be involved in something so important that could, like our Fix NICS bill, save lives.”
Add Comment