Gun control debate reignited following deadly school shooting in Texas

Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman joins the Live show to discuss gun control following Tuesday’s deadly school shooting in Texas.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Brian Kemp is set to win the Georgia Republican primary for governor. The incumbent saw a challenge from Trump-backed candidate David Perdue. Kemp now will face off against Democrat Stacey Abrams, as he hopes for re-election to the governorship. Here with more is our Rick Newman. And Rick, we talked about this earlier in the week. You know, Kemp was favored. But when you look at that with the other primary results that we have been getting, again, there's this conclusion that this was not a sweep for former President Trump.

RICK NEWMAN: Oh, it was a bad night for President Trump and not just Kemp. Polls told us Kemp was going to beat Perdue. He actually beat Perdue by more than polls predicted. But also look at that secretary of state race, where Trump had backed the opponent of Brad Raffensperger, who was also the guy who told Trump, stop interfering in our election. The results are correct. That was what happened in 2020.

So Trump tried to get both of those guys out, and he failed. I think what this is telling us, Julie, Trump's power within the Republican Party is probably weakening. But I mean, broaden this out a little bit. Trump does not-- he's not presenting any kind of message to voters other than one thing really, which is you have to show loyalty to me with regard to my lie about the 2020 election.

I mean, I think what voters are saying is, hey, man, it's 2022. We're tired of hearing about 2020. Let's talk about what we need to do in the future. There's a lot going on. We're still not out of the pandemic, a lot of policy issues to discuss here. And Trump has really become kind of a one-trick pony at this point.

So his grip on the party does seem to be fading. There still are some Trump-backed candidates who won the primaries and probably will win in some of the upcoming primaries. But I think we're really getting to the point where the next big thing is going to be, do these Trump-backed candidates do well in the general election? And I think that will be the thing that determines whether Trump decides to run himself for President in 2024.

JARED BLIKRE: And Rick, we have a little bit of time here. And we do like to give you time. What are some of the other primary races that you're tracking here? And how critical is this time period with respect to these midterms?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, I mean, we did see some other results last night. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas, she won the governor's primary. We still don't know the outcome of the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, where the Trump-backed candidate, Dr. Oz, Mehmet Oz, he is-- he may end up losing to the finance guy who Trump did not back.

So another interesting thing about Trump is he's not saying all that much. And of course, he lost his platform on Twitter. And he's now supposedly using his own platform, Trump Social. But you just don't hear much from the guy.

He says-- he sort of issues a proclamation from Mar-a-Lago-- this is his preferred candidate. But he's not out doing much campaigning for these candidates. I almost feel like Trump's gotten kind of lazy. You, know he's bringing in a lot of money through his fundraising efforts. He's giving a little bit of that money to some of these candidates he backs. But where's the energy? I mean, this does not look at all like Trump in 2015 when he was thinking about running for president and then when he actually said he is going to run for president.

JULIE HYMAN: That sounds like a good nickname, the likes of which he has been so fond of giving, right, Lazy Trump. I think I think it could catch on.

RICK NEWMAN: Low-Energy Trump.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, Low-Energy Trump, there you go. Like, softy Trump, who's sitting there at Mar-a-Lago. I want to follow up, Rick, on a much more serious note. I would be remiss as our political correspondent if I didn't ask you about the events in Texas and what happens now. And I'm afraid that the answer is the same as it's been for the last two decades, right, that nothing happens. But on the subject of gun control, is there any hope of any movement?

RICK NEWMAN: I wish I had a better answer. But I just don't see it. I mean, this has happened so many times. We see the predictable pattern. We've just seen this, I mean, going back to Sandy Hook when President Obama was in office. You know, Democrats call for some kind of better gun control efforts. And at the same time, gun sales spike because people who want a gun think, oh, my god, Democrats might finally have a chance to do something that will inhibit gun sales. And that ends up not happening.

So I mean, I think we need to remember this is not just a national issue. A lot of this has to do with state laws for guns. And of course, Texas has very liberal laws on guns. So I just-- I don't have anything good to say about this, Julie. I just don't see any reason anything would be different this time.

JARED BLIKRE: No, Rick, there is absolutely nothing good to say about it. And very, very thankful for that report here, Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman.