President Joe Biden had a somber conversation with Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday, where the pair discussed gun legislation and the ongoing debate surrounding Roe v. Wade.
During Biden’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! visit, which marked his first in-studio late-night appearance since the inauguration, Kimmel asked the president if he would issue an executive order regarding gun sales in response to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
“I have issued executive orders within the power of the presidency to be able to deal with everything having to do with guns, gun ownership…all the things that are within my power,” Biden replied. “But what I don’t want to do — and I’m not being facetious — I don’t want to emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority.”
He continued, “And I mean that sincerely because I often get asked, ‘Look, the Republicans don’t play it square. Why do you play it square?’ Well, guess what? If we do the same thing they do, our democracy will literally be in jeopardy.”
Biden implored the public to use a politician’s views on gun legislation as a determining factor for whether to vote for that person. “You got to make sure that this becomes a voting issue,” Biden said. “It’s got to be one of the issues where you decide your position on the issue.… ‘What [politicians] say in those things is going to determine how I’m going to vote for you.’”
After Kimmel brought up the leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, Biden said, “If that occurs, I think we have to legislate it. We have to make sure we pass legislation making it a law that is, ‘The federal government says this is how it works.’”
The commander in chief added that he has been preparing for how he could respond if the 1973 case legalizing abortion nationwide is overruled. “It’s just ridiculous, in my view,” Biden said about the potential decision. “I don’t think the country will stand for it, and I think what we’re going to have to do, there’s some executive orders I could employ, we believe. We’re looking into that right now.”
Biden predicted that such a Supreme Court decision could cause a “mini revolution” and reminded viewers to express themselves at the ballot box: “If they overrule Roe v. Wade, and the state of California won’t do it, but other states say, ‘You cannot do the following, and it’s a law you can’t cross the border’ — all the things that some states have — then you got to make sure you vote. You got to vote and let people know what the devil you think.”
President Joe Biden had a somber conversation with Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday, where the pair discussed gun legislation and the ongoing debate surrounding Roe v. Wade.
During Biden’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! visit, which marked his first in-studio late-night appearance since the inauguration, Kimmel asked the president if he would issue an executive order regarding gun sales in response to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
“I have issued executive orders within the power of the presidency to be able to deal with everything having to do with guns, gun ownership…all the things that are within my power,” Biden replied. “But what I don’t want to do — and I’m not being facetious — I don’t want to emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority.”
He continued, “And I mean that sincerely because I often get asked, ‘Look, the Republicans don’t play it square. Why do you play it square?’ Well, guess what? If we do the same thing they do, our democracy will literally be in jeopardy.”
Biden implored the public to use a politician’s views on gun legislation as a determining factor for whether to vote for that person. “You got to make sure that this becomes a voting issue,” Biden said. “It’s got to be one of the issues where you decide your position on the issue.… ‘What [politicians] say in those things is going to determine how I’m going to vote for you.’”
After Kimmel brought up the leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, Biden said, “If that occurs, I think we have to legislate it. We have to make sure we pass legislation making it a law that is, ‘The federal government says this is how it works.’”
The commander in chief added that he has been preparing for how he could respond if the 1973 case legalizing abortion nationwide is overruled. “It’s just ridiculous, in my view,” Biden said about the potential decision. “I don’t think the country will stand for it, and I think what we’re going to have to do, there’s some executive orders I could employ, we believe. We’re looking into that right now.”
Biden predicted that such a Supreme Court decision could cause a “mini revolution” and reminded viewers to express themselves at the ballot box: “If they overrule Roe v. Wade, and the state of California won’t do it, but other states say, ‘You cannot do the following, and it’s a law you can’t cross the border’ — all the things that some states have — then you got to make sure you vote. You got to vote and let people know what the devil you think.”