msnbc's Lawrence O'Donnell said "the founding fathers would not have understood what this president was talking about" when it comes to President Obama's plea for a vote on gun control.
"It would have been inconceivable to them that there would be a major legislative proposal that the president is advancing and that senators are advancing that could not get a vote in these legislatures that they designed," said The Last Word anchor in reaction to the State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The president urged Congress to take up legislation to curb gun violence, at the very least, in honor of shootings victims: "Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence--they deserve a simple vote."
O'Donnell called President Obama's message "extraordinary," but was hoping for a more public confrontation with House Speaker John Boehner. "I just wish he had turned to John Boeher and asked him, openly in front of the country, why wouldn't there be a vote?" He added, "let him have the microphone, he would have nothing to say."