Ocasio-Cortez demands McConnell stop 'giving bogus excuses' and pass gun background check bill

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In the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for failing to call a vote on a gun reform bill that the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives passed in February.

McConnell tweeted on Saturday that he and the country were "horrified" by the "senseless violence" in El Paso, where a lone gunman opened fire inside a Walmart and left at least 20 people dead and dozens more wounded. Following McConnell’s tweet, another gunman attacked a popular nightlife district in Dayton in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Ocasio-Cortez called out McConnell in a tweet on Sunday for “giving bogus excuses” as to why the Senate hasn’t taken up the measure passed in the House that would tighten background checks for people seeking to purchase a firearm.

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"The House passed HR8, a Bipartisan Background Checks Act, *5 months ago* and the Senate has yet to vote on it," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response to McConnell’s own tweet. "It was one of our 1st major priorities after ending the gov shutdown. You’ve been sitting on it since February giving bogus excuses. Care to explain the people why?"

The measure, HR 8, was passed back in February with overwhelming support from the newly elected Democratic majority and some Republican support.

Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t the only lawmaker to call on McConnell to bring the resolution to a vote in the Senate.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a leading candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, also demanded that McConnell call the Senate back into session and take up a vote of the resolution.

“Mitch McConnell should bring the Senate back into session immediately to pass HR 8, the gun safety bill that has already passed the House,” Sanders tweeted. “That's a first step to addressing our serious gun violence epidemic.”