- President Donald Trump met with National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre on Friday and discussed how the NRA could help Trump fight impeachment and also asked him to back off gun reform, according to The New York Times.
- The Times reported that LaPierre offered "financial support for the president's defense" and asked Trump to "stop the games" on gun-control legislation.
- The impeachment inquiry centers around a whistleblower complaint from an intelligence officer who wrote that Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election."
- Despite the fact that expanding universal background checks to all private gun sales regularly earns over 90% support among Republicans, LaPierre has been remarkably effective at encouraging Trump not to back gun control.
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President Donald Trump met with Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, and discussed how the NRA could help Trump fight the ongoing impeachment inquiry and asked him to back off gun reform, according to The New York Times.
The Times reported that Trump met LaPierre at the White House on Friday, where LaPierre offered "financial support for the president's defense" and asked Trump to "stop the games" on gun control legislation. It's not clear what form the "financial support" would take. It's also unclear if it was offered by LaPierre unsolicited or asked for by the president, or if it was accepted.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally announced an impeachment inquiry into Trump after an explosive whistleblower complaint from an intelligence officer said Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election."
The complaint detailed concerns that Trump used a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential front-runner, after withholding a nearly $400 million military-aid package.
While Trump and his allies are trying to discredit the whistleblower, a White House memo summarizing the July call with Zelensky confirms the substance of the complaint — after mentioning how the US "does a lot" for Ukraine, Trump discussed investigations that would politically benefit him.
Expanding universal background checks to all private gun sales regularly earns over 90% support among Republicans and Trump's own voters. But LaPierre has, so far, been successful in convincing the White House not to throw its weight behind a bipartisan Senate amendment that would accomplish just that.
In the wake of two deadly mass shootings that killed 31 people and injured dozens of others in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in early August, members of Congress from both parties pushed for new federal gun-safety laws, including expanded background checks.
In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, President Donald Trump publicly expressed support for "strong background checks" and vowed "to act with urgent resolve."
But the powerful NRA called him and convinced him not to back any more gun-safety measures, according to reports, and Trump put the brakes on the issue.
Editor's note: This story was changed to reflect new language in The New York Times story.
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