NRA Bashes Surgeon General Nominee Vivek Murthy Ahead Of Senate Vote

NRA Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre speaks during the leadership forum at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting Friday, May 3, 2013 in Houston. (AP Photo/Steve Ueckert)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The National Rifle Association revived its attacks on Vivek Murthy, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be U.S. surgeon general, ahead of an expected Senate confirmation vote on Monday.

“The NRA’s position hasn’t changed. America’s next surgeon general should not be a political operative whose professional inexperience has been a source of bipartisan concern,” Andrew Arulanandan, a top NRA spokesman, told TPM.

Arulanandan said that the NRA would score the vote and thereby downgrade its rankings of lawmakers who support Murthy.

The gun lobby’s opposition had stalled the nomination for months. It spooked red state Democrats earlier this year by painting Murthy as an anti-gun advocate for having argued that gun violence is a public health issue, and for having supported gun safety policies like mandatory background checks and a ban on assault weapons.

In March 2014, a Senate Democratic leadership aide admitted to TPM that NRA opposition had “put some moderate Democrats in a tough spot” and that the party was “probably short 8-10 votes” of the 51 needed to ensure his confirmation. But with the election over, his odds of getting the votes have improved in the lame duck session before Republicans take the majority.

The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the nomination on Monday afternoon and, if it succeeds, immediately move to a final vote to confirm him.

Murthy received his degree from Yale School of Medicine, and has since worked as a physician-instructor at Harvard Medical School and co-founded the nonprofit group VISIONS Worldwide, which works to fight HIV/AIDS. He worked to help elect Obama president in 2008. He’s endorsed by more than 100 medical and public health groups.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke out in favor of the nomination on Monday morning, describing Murthy as highly qualified to become the nation’s chief public health spokesman.

He would be the country’s first Indian-American surgeon general.

This article was updated at 4:35 p.m. ET to mention that the NRA plans to score the vote.

Latest DC

Notable Replies

  1. Well, of course the NRA does that! The NRA, known for being on the cutting edge of medicine and public health, CERTAINLY able to judge the qualifications of any leader in 21st century medical practice. /snark

  2. Avatar for marby marby says:

    Please, please, please Dems - stand up to the NRA and vote for this nominee. (Is this the actual quote from the NRA??? - “The NRA’s position hasn’t changed. America’s next surgeon general should not be a political operative whose lack of professional inexperience has been a source of bipartisan concern,” Andrew Arulanandan, a top NRA spokesman, told TPM.")

  3. Who cares what the NRA has to say. Thanks ted cruz for being an idiot.

  4. Avatar for timg timg says:

    So… his “lack of professional inexperience” means that he does have professional experience, right?

  5. Avatar for dnl dnl says:

    Good catch!

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

4 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for don Avatar for jw1 Avatar for marby Avatar for commenterperson Avatar for sniffit Avatar for 538liberal Avatar for bigdaddydrj Avatar for dnl Avatar for timg

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: