Harry Reid Introduces Gun Bill
BLITZER: Just over three months since the Newtown, Connecticut massacre. The senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has formally introduced a gun bill that he says will be debated once lawmakers return from their two week recess. Joining us to talk about that and more, CNN's chief political analyst, Gloria Borger and our senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein. HE is the "National Journal" editorial director. Guys, thanks very much for coming in. Dianne Feinstein, she is not very happy that apparently the assault weapons ban would be included as amendment as opposed to part of the actual bill. Let's listen to what she told us.</s>SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: This is very important to me. And I am not going to lay down and play dead. I think the American people have said in every single public poll that they support this kind of legislation, not to give me a vote on this would be a major betrayal of trust as I would see it.</s>BLITZER: She will get a vote as an amendment, but it won't be part of a comprehensive bill, and it is almost certainly going to die.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And I think that's not a surprise to a lot of people. And normally people say let's blame the Republican party for that. The truth of the matter is that there are a handful of Senate Democrats up for re-election in pro-gun states like Arkansas, Montana, South Dakota, for example, who would be in real trouble on an issue like an assault weapons ban. People believe it is a constitutional issue in their state. So, I think that the Democratic Party as well as the Republican party is reluctant on this issue. If it had been easy to do, they would have renewed the ban on assault weapons when it expired.</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, first of all, we are seeing a change in the very fact that we are debating this. This issue was under a gag rule, really, for a decade after Al Gore's defeat in 2000 and the national debate encouraged action in blue leaning states like Colorado, New York, and Connecticut. But the problem, as Gloria suggested, is that Democrats are divided by geography on guns and Republicans are unified by ideology. The red state Democrats, traditionally, have been reluctant to vote for this, even going back to 1994 when it passed, they had a lot of defection among red districts and red state Democrats. The difference is that the gun control advocates haven't been able to put pressure on Republicans from blue places to vote for it. They make up for those votes. And as a result, it does not seem to be anything near even, not even majority. Much less a 60 votes.</s>BORGER: And Harry Reid, by the way, Harry Reid, the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate who made this decision is from Nevada, which is a pro-gun state and he opposes it.</s>BLITZER: The vice president was in New York, meeting with the mayor, Michael Bloomberg. We all know what Joe Biden would like to see and what the mayor would like to see. Let me play a little clip from Biden.</s>JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It must be awful, being in public office and concluding that even though you might believe you should take action, that you can't take action because of political consequence you face. What a heck of a way to make a living. I mean that sincerely. What a heck of a way to have to have to act.</s>BLITZER: It is interesting because polls show that if nationally the overwhelming majority of the American public wants stricter rules, but they can't get it through politically.</s>BROWNSTEIN: And that's what's really interesting about this. The legislative and presidential politics of this are different. Legislatively, Democrats face the problem of geography. And the senate, small state bias magnifies the impact of small rural states where this is not politically sellable in most cases. But, as you point out, in national politics there's majority of support, for mostly said yes, a especially among what's become the Democrats' coalition of the ascending. Young people, minorities, college educated voters, especially women. These are majority issues. So, while it is difficult to pass them congressionally, blocking them and kind of unifying the Republican opposition against is not without cost in terms of peeling away from those constituency only to win back the White House.</s>BORGER: Think of it as sort of a presidential race, when you look at the national numbers, that's one thing. When you look at the battleground states, that's what is really important. And that is the same kind of issue here. I just want to say one thing about Joe Biden. Joe Biden was part of the coalition that got the ban on assault weapons passed.</s>BLITZER: That was a long time ago.</s>BORGER: He feels very, very strongly about this issue. As you know, Joe Biden is a visceral kind of politician. And whether he was saying in that sound bite that you just showed in the press conference that I kind a feel sorry for all of my political colleagues because they have to vote this way, even though they don't really believe it. When you think about that, I mean, it is a tough statement.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Gloria, the problem is more the opposite. In '94 when they passed it, they had 38 House Republicans from blue districts who felt compelled to vote for it. Today, gun control advocates have not been able to, it really have to go out to mayor efforts and others, if they are going to change the politics on this, they have to beat some Republicans in blue leaning areas who have voted against it and they haven't shown they can do that.</s>BLITZER: Some Democrats, if you remember in '94, they paid a pretty significant price for that.</s>BORGER: They did. And that's why they haven't touched it since, Wolf, they're afraid. They are absolutely afraid.</s>BLITZER: These are not repulsive to this. All right Guys, thanks very much. Ron and Gloria. When we come back, a defense contractor with top secret clearance allegedly seduced to give away some of America's nuclear secrets. We are going to find out how it happened. That's next. Stay with us. You are in the SITUATION ROOM.