Cory Booker doesn't answer Meghan McCain's repeated questions on how he would carry out mandatory gun buybacks

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) had a whole lot to say during his appearance on "The View" Wednesday — but amid the volume of words proceeding from his mouth, he couldn't manage to address co-host Meghan McCain's repeated questions on how he would accomplish mandatory gun buybacks if he were to win the 2020 election.

What happened?

McCain called the idea of mandatory gun buybacks a "left-wing fever dream" and then asked the U.S. senator from New Jersey how he and fellow Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke "are going to go into red states, and go to my brother's house, and get his AR-15s, because lemme tell ya — he's not giving it back."

"My point is," Booker replied, "I'm not where Beto is."

"Good, 'cause he's crazy," McCain answered.

"Well, again, we should watch the way we talk about each other," Booker continued. "Seriously, we can't tear ... the character of people down. We have different beliefs."

"But he has no problem doing it to me," McCain shot back. "I mean, he was very nasty to me about this."

Booker then got into a bit of sermonizing: "But you and I both know that just because somebody does something to us, doesn't mean we show the same ... back to them."

McCain wasn't having it: "I'm not running for president, with all due respect. And also, the way he talked about me inciting violence on this, I take very seriously. And I speak for a lot of red state Americans — whether he likes it or you like it or not, there's a lot of Republicans you're gonna have to win over."

But did Booker address her question? Nope.

"And, Meghan, you are a voice I respect and admire, but this is a really important issue," he said, completely avoiding McCain's original question. "What we say about other people says more about us than it does about them."

'OK, what about the buybacks, though?'

So she inquired again: "OK, what about the buybacks, though?"

No answer.

Instead Booker recounted a tale he told on late-night TV over the summer about a big guy who told him, "Dude, I want you to punch Donald Trump in the face" — to which Booker replied, "Dude, that's a felony."

And while Booker was all for gentleness and restraint on "The View," in July he admitted to Seth Meyers, "Donald Trump is a guy who you understand he hurts you, and my testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching him, which would be bad for this elderly out-of-shape man that he is if I did that. This physically weak specimen."

'But with all due respect, the gun buybacks'

Anyway, Booker went on and on to McCain about a "revival of civic grace," but she wasn't having it.

"But with all due respect, the gun buybacks."

Nothing.

'The gun buybacks'

She asked again, "The gun buybacks."

Nada.

"Just tell me how, semantically, how you're gonna get my brother's gun back," McCain told Booker

Booker talked about a machine gun ban, to which McCain said, "So you're gonna go to my brother's house."

"No," Booker replied. "Come on ... we could find the evidence-based way to accomplish this as a country. Other countries have done it. We did it with machine guns. Why are we playing into fearmongerers ... that there's gonna be people showing up at your house and taking your guns away? That plays exactly into the corporate gun lobby."

Straight from the heart

Then Booker placed his hand over his chest and said, "Let me tell you where this comes from" — and then launched into a lengthy description of gun violence in his community. But still no answer.

Co-host Sunny Hostin did say that "law-abiding citizens will follow the law" in regard to a mandatory gun buyback — which, of course, doesn't solve the problem of citizens who don't follow the law.

At the end McCain seemed to have enough of the dodging and said there wasn't any use continuing the conversation after the commercial break.

The View 10/30/19 Full Episode | Full The View October 30 2019 | #THEVIEWyoutu.be

(H/T: Red State)