After lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, a native of Uvalde, Texas, is scheduled to speak at Tuesday’s White House press briefing, as Congress considers new gun safety legislation this week after a spate of mass shootings.
McConaughey returned to Capitol Hill for the second day in a row on Tuesday to meet with lawmakers. An aide familiar with the matter told ABC News on Tuesday evening that the actor has planned to discuss gun safety with bipartisan Senate negotiators, as well as some House lawmakers.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, he said he’s “endlessly hopeful” his meetings with lawmakers on gun reform legislation will lead to change.
Matthew McConaughey in Los Angeles, Dec. 12, 2021.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images, FILE
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was hearing from the son of the oldest victim in the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, at a Senate hearing on domestic terrorism Tuesday, tweeted a photo of his office meeting with McConaughey.
“We, like so many others, agree that gun safety reform is needed — I’ll keep working to make that happen,” Durbin wrote Monday evening.
McConaughey, the son of a kindergarten teacher and a gun owner, paid a visit to his hometown of Uvalde just days after the tragic mass shooting at Robb Elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead after first posting his reaction on social media, calling for action.
“This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side of the aisle we may stand on, we all know we can do better,” he wrote on May 25, one day after the massacre. “Action must be taken so that no parent has to experience what the parents in Uvalde and the others before have endured.”
McConaughey also penned an op-ed in the Austin-American Statesman last month with the headline, “It’s time to act on gun responsibility.”
He wrote in support of universal background checks, raising the age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21, implementing more red flags laws and instituting a national waiting period for assault rifles.
While McConaughey hasn’t spoken at length about his visit to Uvalde, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who represents the district where Uvalde is located, shared a group photo alongside the actor from his visit last week.
“This week was a solemn reminder that evil exists in the world, but we will never let it break us. We’ll unite to be an even more powerful reminder that love never fails & together we can change things,” he wrote May 27 on Twitter. “Appreciate Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey helping us heal.”
While the actor was flirting with a run for governor of Texas, he announced in a November that “political leadership” was a “path that I’m choosing not to take at this moment.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa and Carson Blackwelder contributed to this report.