Former Obama Spox Earnest Defends Obama, Dems Not Acting on Gun Control in 2008-09

CHUCK TODD: Josh, do you think Democrats want an incremental? You know, it's interesting, base Democrats, will they accept incremental progress or will they kill it?

JOSH EARNEST: Well, you know, this is one of the interesting things about this debate is that the vast majority of the problem exists on the Republican side. But there are problems on the Democratic side too. Republicans, many critics of President Obama have pointed out that Democrats were in charge of the United States Congress for the first two years of his presidency, and they didn't take any of these votes. And there's a reason for that. Because it wouldn't have passed, had they taken these votes, right?

But the other reason is that we--

(OVERTALK)

CHUCK TODD: Harry Reid didn't want you to have that vote.

JOSH EARNEST: That's right, yeah. No, we were focused on preventing a second Great Depression, passing healthcare reform. So it's not as if we were focused on the wrong things, but the political dynamics here do portray that Democrats in some cases are not in the right place. The question is, what impact does that mean? What does it mean for Democrats? What should we do when we confront a candidate like Conor Lamb?