PA Bill Number: HB2311
Title: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program.
Description: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program. ...
Last Action: Laid on the table
Last Action Date: Sep 23, 2024
Red-state Dem faces flak over gun comments :: 06/22/2016
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is facing pushback for saying that when it comes to getting a deal on gun control, "due process is what's killing us right now."
Patrick Morrisey, the Republican West Virginia attorney general, sent a letter to Manchin on Wednesday, saying it is "absurd to suggest that we are being harmed or should compromise our constitutionally-guaranteed right to due process."
"The long-established right to due process is not killing us, nor should it be viewed as a burdensome firewall that gets in the way of your preferred legislation, whatever its policy merits," he wrote in the letter, first obtained by The Hill.
Morrisey is considered an up-and-comer in West Virginia, where he's garnered speculation as a potential GOP challenger to Manchin in 2018. Manchin is one of a handful of red-state Democrats up for reelection.
His letter comes after Manchin told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that, when it comes to getting an agreement on gun control legislation, "The problem we have, and really the firewall we have right now, is due process. It's all due process.
"Can’t we say that, if a person is under suspicion there should be a 5-year period of time that we have to see good behavior if this person continues the same traits?" he added. "Maybe we can come to that kind of agreement. But due process is what’s killing us right now.”
His comments came after Omar Mateen, formerly on a federal watchlist, killed 49 people and injured 53 more in a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, marking the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The Senate rejected four gun control proposals Monday evening.
Manchin told The Daily Caller Monday that his comments were "taken totally out of context," adding, "It's what we're trying to protect — due process."
But Morrisey said it was "unclear" how Manchin's initial comments were misinterpreted, and asked that the senator take "into account the importance of due process in your deliberation" as gun control is debated.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/284485-red-state-dem-faces-flack-over-gun-comments
