Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Live,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will not move legislation on gun control because he is “hiding in the closet afraid of the NRA.”

Jeffries said, “Reasonable gun safety measures is something that the American people, we believe, widely support. And this is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. This is not a partisan issue. It’s an issue that relates to the well being of the American people. Innocent folks are being massacred, not in Afghanistan, not in Baghdad, but on American streets.”

Tur asked, “The voters want it and their constituents, why do you think Mitch McConnell is not acting?”

Jeffries said, “That’s a question more appropriately directed at Moscow Mitch. ”

He continued, “Many Senate Republicans are behaving as if they are wholly owned subsidiaries of the gun lobby. That’s quite unfortunate. The NRA clearly has indicated nothing is acceptable to them as it relates to reasonable gun safety measures, even though the Supreme Court in the Heller decision and in an opinion authored by Justice Scalia, of all people, has made clear that pursuant to the Constitution, reasonable gun safety measures are lawful.”

He added, “The House and Senate are part of a legislative process, and at the end of the day I think we recognize that we should try to find common ground with the other side of the Capitol, but we do need a partner and right now, because Mitch McConnell is obstructing, missing in action, or hiding in the closet afraid of the NRA, take your choice, there is no partner.”

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