With a new video released Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid aims pressure certain Senate Republicans into supporting universal background checks as part of comprehensive gun control legislation.
The two-minute video features clips of various Republicans including Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) — saying in past interviews that they would consider supporting universal background checks.
The video then cuts to a speech from President Barack Obama last week, in which he urged Congress not to "get squishy."
The video comes as nearly every Democrat-proposed gun control measure faces trouble in the Senate.
"We need everybody to remember how we felt 100 days ago," Obama says in the video, "and make sure that what we said at that time wasn't just a bunch of platitudes. That we meant it."
Watch the full video below:
There are a few noteworthy people missing from Reid's video, however — red-state Democratic Senators who have been reluctant to support gun control measures, including the expansion of background checks.
Some of these Senators include Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and Mark Begich (D-Alaska). The latter three of those Senators are up for re-election in 2014. Two other red-state Democrats — Indiana's Joe Donnelly and North Carolina's Kay Hagan — have signaled that they would be willing to support background checks.
A Democratic Senate aide said that Reid would not be releasing a similar video aimed at Democrats in red states.
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