When you can’t beat ’em, you bribe ’em, that’s the DC swamp thing to do because only those that have values can’t be trusted – PB/TK
What did Trump say to Joe Manchin about new opportunities for “gun-safety” legislation? – by Allahpundit March 27, 2017
tantalizing tidbit from Robert Draper’s story about how Trump might handle his predicament in Congress, stuck between Democrats on the left who refuse to deal with him en masse and a Freedom Caucus on the right that’s willing to walk away from any legislation that’s short of true fiscal conservatism. If the Freedom Caucus can’t be placated, Trump faces a hard choice between serial frustration on his major legislative initiatives or bipartisan packages with plenty of goodies for Democrats.
What might some of those goodies look like? Red-state Democrat Joe Manchin gave Draper a hint:
The Senate Democrat who, to outward appearances, seems closest to Trump is Joe Manchin, who met face to face with the president-elect in Trump Tower in December. Before the meeting, Bannon took the West Virginia senator aside. “The thing you need to know about Trump,” Bannon said, “is he doesn’t care about the Republican Party and he doesn’t care about the Democratic Party. He just wants to put some wins on the board for the country.” In the meeting, Trump asked Manchin what could be done for coal miners. Manchin replied that he should support his Miners Protection Act, which would secure health benefits and pension funds for retired miners. According to Manchin, Trump replied that he would thoroughly support such a measure.
Later that month, Manchin went on “Morning Joe” — the one show on MSNBC that Trump has been known to watch — to discuss, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the Newtown school massacre, the need to expand background checks on gun purchases. Within an hour after Manchin was offscreen, his cellphone rang. It was Trump. Manchin was not completely forthcoming about the conversation, but he did tell me that he envisioned “a complete opportunity” for new gun-safety legislation. Unlike with Obama, he said, “no one thinks President Trump would do anything that would take away your gun rights.”
Given his unpopularity, nationally and especially with the Democratic base, it would require a verrrry sexy bit of bait to get Democrats to come to the table and talk horse-trading with Trump. Gun control might do the trick. Get too aggressive with it, of course, and it’ll backfire on the White House by angering Trump’s rural base — but what if he can find some measure that was broadly popular, one which, by supporting it, would serve notice to Democrats that he’s prepared to throw off Republican orthodoxy and consider centrist solutions if they’ll meet him halfway?
Continue to hotair.com article: http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/27/what-did-trump-say-to-joe-manchin-about-new-opportunities-for-gun-safety-legislation/
