From the February 13 edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show:
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RACHEL MADDOW (HOST): The Obama administration, they created a rule to try to keep guns out of the hands of people who are classified as seriously mentally disabled by the Social Security Administration. So if a person is too mentally disabled to be able to handle his or her own affairs, like you know, cash your own checks and stuff, that will pop on a background check. If that seriously mentally disabled person tries to buy a gun. Once President Obama left office, the Republican Congress decided that seriously mentally ill people definitely need easier access to firearms and they took a vote on it in the House. And House Republicans on an almost perfect party line vote, they voted to get rid of that rule. They voted overtly to make it easier for the mentally ill to get guns. Almost a perfect party line vote on that. It passed the House. Now its going to the Senate. There are 52 Republicans in the Senate and everybody expects them all to vote yes by a mile. Also, Joe Manchin, Democratic senator from West Virginia, he also says he will vote to end that rule. He will vote explicitly and only. It's not like it's folded into a more complicated thing. It's just a vote to make it easier for seriously mentally ill people to have guns, stand-alone matter. So, thanks to Republicans and Joe Manchin, this bill is expected to pass easily. I mean, nobody -- nobody campaigned in November on needing to put more guns in the hands of people suffering from serious and disabling mental illness. But it's probably going to be the third piece of legislation that Trump signs. It has been a top priority for the NRA and now the bill is moving on greased skids. We’re told to expect a vote, I kid you not, as early as tomorrow. And if it passes the Senate, it will land on the president's desk. And then I’m sure they will tack the NRA bill up on the White House fridge. A lot of room for it.
