Biden: "Assault Weapons" Ban Hardest Political Deal He's Negotiated

Gun control wasn’t a big topic of discussion during Thursday night’s CNN town hall with Joe Biden, but when it did come up, it was the president himself who broached the subject. Biden spoke about his gun ban in response to a question from moderator Anderson Cooper. No, not the gun ban he’s trying to impose on tens of millions of American gun owners, but the ten-year ban on so-called assault weapons that Biden was able to ram through as part of his 1994 crime bill.

President Biden on Thursday said negotiating the assault weapons ban of 1994 was more difficult than current deliberations for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and reconciliation package, as the White House and Capitol Hill near the end of months-long negotiations for key parts of his legislative agenda.

Biden, when asked by Anderson Cooper during a CNN town hall if his Build Back Better agenda is the toughest deal he has ever worked on, responded no, pointing to the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.

“I think banning assault weapons is the toughest deal I worked on. And succeeded,” Biden told Cooper.