McDonough Repeatedly Dodges on Whether Obama Will Support Sanders Because of Gun Control

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
TODD: “Welcome back, Tuesday is President Obama’s final State of the Union address and he has signaled this week that he doesn’t intend to go quietly, unveiling some executive action on gun control and what was an emotional speech at the white House. But Tuesday isn’t just about his last year in office. It’s about an attempt to set the agenda for the presidential campaign and he made that clear in a “New York Times” op-ed on Friday when he state head would not campaign for any candidate who does not support his common sense gun reform. Looking ahead to Tuesday and beyond, I’m joined by the white House chief of staff Dennis McDonough, Mr. McDonough, welcome back to ‘Meet the press.’”
MCDONOUGH: “Thanks for having me, Chuck.”
TODD: “The president said he would make it a litmus test for his support in 2016. There’s an active democratic primary in here and one of the common sense gun reform he is wrote about having to do with giving immunity to gun manufacturers. One of the two main candidates, senator Bernie Sanders, voted for legislation that gave immunity. Does that mean the president could not support Bernie Sanders if he were the nominee?”
MCDONOUGH: “This isn’t only about the primary. We have a third of the Senate that’s running, all the house that’s running, the statehouses and governorships across the country where this will be an issue on the ballot, it should be. And that’s what the president is saying. So when it comes down the primary we’ll see who the nominee is. That’s the job of the party to make the decisions and they’ll take a hard look at the agendas and positions of those candidates and make decisions.”
TODD: “The Sanders campaign claims there is no daylight between them and Sanders on this issue. If he supports immunity for gun manufacturers, isn’t that daylight?”
MCDONOUGH: “I’m not doing a lot of ‘If thens.’ I’ve noticed after the last couple days since the president said that there has been some movement on this question.” 
TODD: “The immunity specifically.”
MCDONOUGH: “So if we continue to see that toward overall support for common sense gun laws that’s what we’re looking for.”
TODD: “But it’s remarkable. The president is not committing to supporting one of the two major democratic candidates because of the gun issue, correct?”
MCDONOUGH: “No, the president is saying that across the board he’s going to be a singling-issue voter on this. He thinks that makes sense given the enormity of the challenge 30, 000 deaths a year. Over 20,000 people under 18 in the last decade killed by gun violence or accidents. More than 500 police officers. So same to say enough is enough and that’s what the president is saying.”
TODD: “When could we expect him to make his choice on who he supports in the Democratic primary.”
MCDONOUGH: “We’ll do what has been done in the past which is when the nominee is set, the president will be out there.”
TODD: “So he won’t go early?”
MCDONOUGH: “No.”
TODD: “He won’t use the gun issue as an excuse to say ‘I’m going to support Secretary Clinton.’” 
MCDONOUGH: “No.”
TODD: “We have noticed he’s met privately with her in the last six months. Unless you haven’t told us something, he’s yet to meet one on one with Bernie Sanders.”
MCDONOUGH: “He meets with all of our senators, including Senator Sanders —“
TODD: “He’s had a one on one recently. As many times as with Secretary Clinton?”
MCDONOUGH: “I haven’t wracked them up on how many times he’s seen who but he has seen senator Sanders both with the Senate democratic caucus and privately so we’ll continue to do that. He’s a leading senator and will continue to do just that.”