President Barack Obama's push on gun control suffered a major blow Wednesday when the senate defeated a gun-buyer background check bill put together by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
The amendment failed 54 to 46, falling short of the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster of the measure.
Obama spoke on the failed measure Wednesday evening in the White House rose garden. He took to the podium after Mark Barden, the father of a Newtown victim.
"Our hearts are broken, our spirit is not," Barden said.
Obama placed blame on the gun lobby during his remarks.
"The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill," Obama said.
The president said the failure of the background check bill "came down to politics."
"There are no coherent arguments for why we didn't do this," Obama said.
Obama's anger was apparent during his remarks, which were given as families of shooting victims and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) -- a shooting survivor -- stood behind him.
"All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," Obama said.
More from the AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the Senate's opposition to a bill that would have expanded background checks for gun buyers marks a "shameful day for Washington." He says a minority of senators decided "it wasn't worth it" to protect the nation's children.
Obama spoke in the Rose Garden shortly after the Senate vote. It marked a major blow to the gun control push Obama started in the wake of December's shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.
The president pinned the blame for the measures' failure on Republicans, though five Democrats also opposed the plan.
Obama was introduced by the father of a 7-year-old killed in the shooting. Other families joined him in the Rose Garden, along with former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011.
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