Democratic presidential candidate and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan announced Wednesday that he will lead a group to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, urging the Senate majority leader to “get off your ass” and advance gun control legislation.
Ryan’s comments came just before President Donald Trump’s arrival in Dayton, Ohio, where a masked gunman early Sunday morning killed nine and injured 27. The weekend also saw a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that left 22 dead and over two dozen wounded.
“Tomorrow, I am leading a caravan in my official capacity as a congressman, working with Moms Demand Action, to start in Youngstown and go to Akron, and Columbus, and Dayton, and Cincinnati and pick people up along the way, and we’re going to Louisville, Kentucky,” Ryan told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “Newsroom” Wednesday morning.
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Ryan continued, “We’re going to make sure that Mitch McConnell knows that there are two pieces of legislation sitting on his desk that he needs to bring up for a vote to actually get some action” and, he later added, to let McConnell “know that we’re very, very serious about what’s happening here.”
Ryan also slammed McConnell, echoing his comments earlier this week demanding the top Senate Republican rise to the occasion and act on gun reform.
“Get your culiones, OK, grab ‘em, and do something, because the American people are fed up with you stonewalling everything,” Ryan said. “People are dying on the streets just a couple hours from your house, and you’re sitting there doing nothing.”
“Get off your ass, and get something done. We’re fed up,” he said later, adding that “Ohioans aren’t forgetting – we’re going to see Mitch McConnell tomorrow, and we’re inviting every surrounding state to get a caravan and meet us in Louisville, Kentucky.”