Schumer Threatens To Nuke The Senate Once Again

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Is Once Again Saying Democrats Want To Break Senate Rules To Eliminate The Filibuster

“[Democrat] Leaders are thinking big, cautiously. Sitting down with Rachael [Bade] at the Grill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer discussed plans for a scenario that just a month ago seemed awfully remote: a Democratic governing trifecta. Yes, it’s still a long shot, especially if you believe the recent Senate polls out of Montana. But Schumer was not shy about suggesting that the legislative filibuster may be at risk for at least some pieces of high-profile legislation.” (Politico’s “Playbook,” 8/20/2024)

·       “Now Schumer is predicting more success: ‘We came close last time, as you remember, we couldn’t change the rules, but I think there would be a consensus in my caucus to try and do that.’” (Politico’s “Playbook,” 8/20/2024)

·       “While he was careful to note any action would be subject to the whims of his caucus, Schumer said Democrats would ‘make sure democracy is preserved’ in a reference to the party’s big voting rights and campaign reform bills, whose progress was blocked early in the Biden administration after centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (W.V.) and Kirsten Sinema (Ariz.) balked at killing the filibuster.” (Politico’s “Playbook,” 8/20/2024)

‘Any Future Democratic Majority Might Be More Amenable … To Eliminate The 60-Vote Threshold For Most Legislation’

“Democrats’ attempts to eliminate the Senate filibuster have come up short in recent years. Eliminating the filibuster was a rallying cry for a number of Democratic Senate candidates in 2020. But the party took the Senate by only a narrow margin, and Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona were key players in blocking fellow Democrats’ efforts to remove the barrier in the early years of the Biden administration.” (“Democratic Senate Hopeful Proposes ‘Pausing’ Filibuster For Abortion And Voting Rights,” NBC News, 5/01/2024)

·       “Manchin and Sinema, who later left the party and became an independent, have both since announced they will not seek re-election this year. That might help tip the Senate back into Republican control, but it also means any future Democratic majority might be more amenable to rules changes to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for most legislation.” (“Democratic Senate Hopeful Proposes ‘Pausing’ Filibuster For Abortion And Voting Rights,” NBC News, 5/01/2024)

House Democrats Looking To Join The Senate Have Expressed Their Eagerness To Crush Minority Rights In The Upper Chamber By Eliminating The Filibuster

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): “If we’re going to make significant reforms to protect a democracy, we’re going to have to get rid of the filibuster … And I would trade wild swings in policy because the majority in the Senate can actually get things passed over the democracy-defeating stalemate that we have with the filibuster.” (“Schiff Would Abolish Filibuster, End The Electoral College In His Pro-Democracy Plan,” Politico, 1/12/2024)

·       “California Senate candidate and Congressmember Adam Schiff is calling for a major overhaul of American institutions, including getting rid of the Electoral College, expanding the Supreme Court and eliminating the filibuster.” (“Schiff Would Abolish Filibuster, End The Electoral College In His Pro-Democracy Plan,” Politico, 1/12/2024)

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): “Enough is enough. End the filibuster.” (Rep. Ruben Gallego, @RepRubenGallego, Twitter, 10/20/2021)

·       GALLEGO: “The filibuster is a relic of the Jim Crow era that has been used to stifle progress for generations now. Abolish it.” (Rep. Ruben Gallego, @RepRubenGallego, Twitter, 12/29/2021)

REP. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): “Yeah, I think the filibuster, as it is now being used, needs to go.” (“Leading Dem Senate Candidate: The Filibuster Rule ‘Needs To Go,’” MSNBC, 3/02/2023)

·       SLOTKIN: “The idea that a couple, a handful of senators can just stop bills from even coming to the floor and getting an up-or-down vote, I just don’t think that makes sense.” (“Leading Dem Senate Candidate: The Filibuster Rule ‘Needs To Go,’” MSNBC, 3/02/2023)

REP. COLIN ALLRED (D-TX): “We cannot allow the filibuster to get in the way of the work we need to do to protect our democracy.” (Rep. Allred, Press Release, 1/13/2022)

·       “Allred said he would support abolishing the filibuster — which generally requires the support of 60 senators before action can be taken — but acknowledged the political difficulty of doing so because a handful of Democrats and most Republicans insist that the filibuster encourages bipartisanship.” (“Democrats Colin Allred, Roland Gutierrez Draw Distinctions On Key Issues As They Target Sen. Ted Cruz In 2024,” The Texas Tribune, 8/09/2023)

REP. DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL (D-FL): “Democracy is 50-plus-one, and for certain issues, I am very much in favor of pausing the filibuster and voting for a woman’s right to choose to codify Roe v. Wade…” (“Democratic Senate Hopeful Proposes ‘Pausing’ Filibuster For Abortion And Voting Rights,” NBC News, 5/01/2024)

·       “Mucarsel-Powell said she would also support undoing the filibuster, which requires 60 Senate votes to advance most legislation, to pass federal voting rights protections and gun measures.” (“Democratic Senate Hopeful Proposes ‘Pausing’ Filibuster For Abortion And Voting Rights,” NBC News, 5/01/2024)

REP. ANDY KIM (D-NJ): “Process and policy, you can’t separate the two…. In order for me to pass women’s reproductive rights in America, we have to have filibuster reform.” (“Nobody Saw Andy Kim Coming. That’s What He Was Counting On.,” The New York Times, 4/27/2024)

·       “Kim was eager to note that he is in favor of reforming the Senate filibuster.” (“Andy Kim, Tammy Murphy Make Their Cases To Democrats At Monmouth University Forum,” NorthJersey.com, 2/05/2024)

·       Endorsement from radical far-left group Indivisible: “[Andy Kim’s] commitment to ending the filibuster and getting things done in the Senate -- they’re exactly what we need more of in Washington.” (“Andy Kim,” Indivisible Website, Accessed 8/20/2024)

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY EXECUTIVE & MARYLAND DEMOCRATIC SENATE NOMINEE ANGELA ALSOBROOKS (D-MD): “As Maryland’s next Senator, I will not let the filibuster impede my work. I will vote to codify abortion rights. I will vote to ban the sale of assault weapons. I will vote to abolish the filibuster.” (Angela Alsobrooks, @AlsobrooksForMD, Twitter, 5/28/2024)

·       ALSOBROOKS: “For far too long, the filibuster has prevented real progress on some of the most challenging issues facing our country. When Maryland elects me to the Senate, I will vote to abolish the filibuster.” (Angela Alsobrooks, @AlsobrooksForMD, Twitter, 8/14/2024)

Schumer Is Happily Discarding His Past Warnings About Defending American Institutions

FLASHBACK: SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “If we fail to adequately defend these institutions, which represent the rule of law and balance of power in our country that the founding fathers so brilliantly enshrined, then we are letting our grand democracy diminish.” (Sen. Schumer, Remarks, 4/10/2018)

·       SCHUMER: “[A]t the end of the day, they have to confront a simple choice: are they willing to break the rules of the Senate, or can they work with us on a way forward?” (Sen. Schumer, Remarks, 4/04/2017)

Extraordinarily, The Sitting President And Vice President, Both Former Senators, Have Endorsed This Assault On The Institution Of The Senate

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: “We have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law, and the way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to do that…. And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, we provide an exception for this, or an exception to the filibuster for this action.” (“Biden, Chiding Court, Endorses Ending Filibuster to Codify Abortion Rights,” 6/30/2022)

THEN-SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): “I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.” (CNN, 9/04/2019)

Earlier This Summer, President Biden Sided With Radicals In His Party In Their Assault On The Supreme Court And Proposed An Outrageous Court-Packing Scheme

“President Biden endorsed sweeping changes to the Supreme Court on Monday, calling for 18-year term limits for the justices and a binding, enforceable ethics code for the high court.” (“Biden Endorses Supreme Court Reforms, Amendment To Limit Immunity,” The Washington Post, 7/29/2024)

·       VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: “[T]here is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court as its fairness has been called into question… That is why President Biden and I are calling on Congress to pass important reforms – [including] imposing term limits for Justices’ active service …” (Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove, @josh_wingrove, Twitter, 7/29/2024)

Pandering To Their Radical Progressive Base, ‘The White House Is Looking To Tap Into The Growing Outrage Among Democrats About The Court’

“The White House is looking to tap into the growing outrage among Democrats about the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, issuing opinions that overturned landmark decisions on abortion rights and federal regulatory powers that stood for decades.” (“Biden Unveils A Proposal To Establish Term Limits For The Supreme Court,” The Associated Press, 7/29/2024)

“Biden had been planning to endorse the changes to the high court, even before he last weekend announced he was reversing course and not seeking a second term as president. Biden hinted about his plans during a call with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a call that was part of his unsuccessful effort to keep Democrats united behind his candidacy.” (“Biden Endorses Supreme Court Reforms, Amendment To Limit Immunity,” The Washington Post, 7/29/2024)

·       “‘I’m going to need your help on the Supreme Court, because I’m about to come out — I don’t want to prematurely announce it — but I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court. … I’ve been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months, and I need some help,’ Biden said, according to a transcript of the call obtained by The Post.” (“Biden Endorses Supreme Court Reforms, Amendment To Limit Immunity,” The Washington Post, 7/29/2024)

In Some Ways, Biden’s New Court-Packing Scheme Is ‘Even More Aggressive Than The Original Version Of Court-Packing’

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “President Biden has agreed to step aside, but not to go quietly. In remarks from the Oval Office [last week], he said in his final months ‘I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform, because this is critical to our democracy.’ What a last spasm by a lame duck, demanding a rewrite of the American founding that Kamala Harris will have to defend or disavow.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Supreme Court-Smacking Plan,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/25/2024)

ADAM J. WHITE, Member of President Biden’s Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States: “I have studied these issues for two decades, most recently as a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, to which the president appointed me in 2021…. Outright court-packing—adding extra justices simply to dilute the current justices’ votes—has been an infamy since 1937, when Congress rejected President Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to pack the court into obeisance. In 2005, then-Sen. Biden remarked that FDR’s war on the court exemplified the adage, ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ … [N]ow the court’s critics would negate judicial life tenure with judicial ‘term limits,’ trying to remove inconvenient justices without the strict standards and procedures of outright impeachment. … The name gives it away, of course. They call it ‘term limits,’ not ‘active-status limits,’ precisely because the point is to end the justice’s term as a real ‘justice’ as the office as been understood for more than two centuries. And it is just court-packing by another name. If anything, the new proposals for disempowering ‘senior’ justices are even more aggressive than the original version of court-packing: FDR tried to add new justices, but he never even attempted to nullify current justices.” (Adam J. White, “Don’t Repackage Court-Packing,” The Dispatch, 7/30/2024)