GOP Sen. Roy Blunt says Trump needs to ‘step up’ in gun debate

“What (Senate Leader Mitch McConnell) said this week, I think maybe it’s the second time he said this, is we’re not going to vote on bills on the Senate floor that the President is not willing to sign. The President needs to step up here and set some guidelines for what he would do,” Blunt, a Missouri Republican who serves as the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press.”

In previous comments, Trump has not made clear what kind of measure he would support. Trump said background checks would not have stopped the mass shootings that have roiled the US over the past few years, and declared gun violence primarily a mental health issue.

Blunt, who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, told Todd that he’s worried Congress will “take this silly ‘if we don’t get everything we won’t do anything'” approach to the issue, and that there should be particular action taken on legislation concerning mental health.

CNN’s Jason Hoffman, Kate Sullivan and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.