The United States Senate voted on four gun-control proposals Monday evening, two from Democrats and two from Republicans, but all of them failed to get passed. Even though the result was predicted in advance all of the networks were disgruntled by the outcome. “The problem is that Democrats and Republicans have two different solutions to the problem, and they're half-hearted attempts at compromise have simply gone nowhere,” moaned Nancy Cordes on CBS’ Evening News.
“The Senate is simply going through the same motions it always does after a mass shooting recently, which is to vote on a series of similar proposals that end up going nowhere,” Cordes continued to complain.
On NBC’s Nightly News, reporter Hallie Jackson referred to the voting as, “another political litmus test.” In an interview with Senator John Cornyn she asked, “So is tonight a show vote?” To which Cornyn replied, “We'll find out where people stand, whether they stand with the constitution or whether they believe the constitution might should be trampled.” Jackson did note, however, that this was the first time all year that every member of the Senate was present to cast a vote.
ABC only dedicated 26 seconds on the Senate’s proposals and simply argued that most Americans wanted the changes. “And one week now after the Orlando massacre, and a new poll showing more than half of Americans now support reform,” reported anchor David Muir on World News Tonight, “And 92 percent are in favor of stricter background checks.”
