Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the filibuster must be eliminated to pass an assault weapon ban and legislation to address the climate.
Anchor Chuck Todd said, “Public sentiment on climate is certainly growing more urgent. And you have made notice that rank and file Republicans are growing more concerned about the climate. But, you know, public opinion is on one side on abortion, it is on one side on guns, it is on one side on climate, and you see, it hasn’t mattered to some of the decisions that are made on politics. How do you break through this?”
Gore said, “Our democracy is broken, and in order to save the climate crisis, we are going to have to pay attention to the democracy crisis. The same reason it is seemingly impossible for the Congress to pass legislation banning these weapons of war, these assault rifles that are being used to murder children in classrooms and create hundreds of mass casualty events already this year, and that’s getting worse, the same reason we can’t pass for example to reinstate the ban on assault weapons is the same reason that we can’t pass climate legislation. We have the minority government. We have the filibuster still that should be eliminated with big money playing much too large a role in our politics. Lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry, and they’re still running all of these advertisements, trying to convince people that it’s not that bad or they’ve got this. Don’t worry about it. We have got to rise to this challenge.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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