Sen. Coons: “I expect we will act if the people of America in particular the teenagers of America hold our feet to the fire and insist we take action”

Sen. Coons also discussed his recent CODEL trip to Israel, Jordan, the U.K., and Greece

WASHINGTON – This morning, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss efforts in Congress to reduce gun violence and his recent bipartisan Senate delegation travel to the United Kingdom, Israel, Jordan, and Greece.

“Yesterday, I had a chance to visit one of Delaware's high schools and to hear from 500 high school students. The number one issue they wanted to talk about was gun safety, gun violence. What it's meant to them to have grown up in an environment where they go through school lockdown drills, active shooter drills and their angry insistence that we in Washington listen to them and take action,” said Senator Coons. “I've been talking to Republican colleagues both on the trip I just mentioned and last night and this morning about what bills we can introduce that have a chance of moving forward, I remain hopeful that we will take up and vote on common sense bills that will strengthen the enforcement of existing laws and put in place new laws but the political reality is pretty harsh and when the kids in Delaware asked me yesterday what can we do to be more effective in lobbying Congress for action I said don't change the subject, don't go away, stay at it, keep coming, push us.” 

Full video and audio available here. 

Excerpts from the interview are below:

Senator Coons on his recent CODEL: Well, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina led a bipartisan delegation: four Republicans and three Democrats. We went to the United Kingdom, Jordan, Israel, Greece, met with defense foreign ministers, prime ministers, in the case of Jordan, the king. We heard significant concern about the escalating violence in Syria. I'll just remind you, it's Vladimir Putin's Russia that has made possible the butcher of Damascus, Bashar al-Assad staying in power and opening a window for Iran's revolutionary guard forces and for Hezbollah to gain a foothold throughout Syria. We went to the Golan Heights in Israel and observed actions on the ground in the near distance right up against Israel's border by both ISIL, which still has an active pocket there in southwest Syria and Assad's forces backed up by Iranians. Our Israeli allies, our Jordanian allies, are deeply troubled by the chaos in Syria and how close it's getting to the borders and our allies in the UK and in Greece are interested in tighter, closer security partnerships and in having a clearer path forward. President Trump has led a number of our core allies to question the forcefulness and clarity of our commitment both because of his statements and budget which proposed a dramatic cut in humanitarian aid and in the State Department and USAID. I think it's important that we showed a bipartisan message of support for our key allies in the Middle East. 

Senator Coons on North Korea: There has been real debate about whether to pursue a so-called bloody nose strike against North Korea. I personally think that would be very risky. I think in North Korea you've got not as much a regime as a cult of personality where Kim Jong-un understands that anything that diminishes his credibility is a direct assault on his regime. And so, one of the things I worry about is that our president who as a candidate said he would aim to be unpredictable has succeeded in being unpredictable for our regional allies, so my concern is that Japan and South Korea who would bear the brunt of any counterattack don't know where our president is going. We don't have ambassadors in a number of key countries. We don't have an ambassador in Jordan, we don't have an ambassador in South Korea, so it's hard for the sometimes-unpredictable messages put out by our president to be deciphered by our core allies. 

Sen. Coons on gun violence: Yesterday, I had a chance to visit one of Delaware's high schools and to hear from 500 high school students. The number one issue they wanted to talk about was gun safety, gun violence. What it's meant to them to have grown up in an environment where they go through school lockdown drills, active shooter drills and their angry insistence that we in Washington listen to them and take action. I've been talking to Republican colleagues both on the trip I just mentioned and last night and this morning about what bills we can introduce that have a chance of moving forward, I remain hopeful that we will take up and vote on common sense bills that will strengthen the enforcement of existing laws and put in place new laws but the political reality is pretty harsh and when the kids in Delaware asked me yesterday what can we do to be more effective in lobbying Congress for action I said don't change the subject, don't go away, stay at it, keep coming, push us because what I saw when I was in Israel at the CNN town hall of high school students from Parkland confronting currently serving senators was really compelling, very powerful and I expect we will act if the people of America in particular the teenagers of America hold our feet to the fire and insist we take action. 

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