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President Trump and Pence meet with NRA leader at White House

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with the executive director of the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm Thursday evening. In...
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President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with the executive director of the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm Thursday evening.

In a tweet, Chris Cox says the two “don’t want gun control.”

“I had a great meeting tonight with @realDonaldTrump & @VP. We all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people. POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control. #NRA #MAGA,” the tweet reads.

Trump confirmed the meeting in a tweet of his own.

“Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!” he wrote.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to provide a readout on the meeting beyond Trump’s tweet.

When asked if the White House agrees with Cox’s assertion that Trump and Pence “don’t want gun control,” a senior White House official said, “POTUS believes in the Second Amendment.”

The meeting came a day after Trump met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to discuss potential gun reform legislation amid heightened tensions over the issue in the country. During Wednesday’s meeting, Trump accused senators at one point of being “afraid of the NRA.”

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who had attended Wednesday’s meeting, reacted on Twitter late Thursday to Trump’s tweet on the NRA meeting: “Fascinating, since I assume the President told them about the support for universal background checks, raising age for rifle purchases, and protective orders he announced on TV yesterday.”

Seventeen people were killed last month at a high school in Florida, which sparked renewed calls on legislators for action on gun reform.

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