Warren Is On A Mission To Take Away Moscow Mitch's Filibuster Power & Win A Senate Majority
Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren (D. MA):
Yesterday, we woke up to the second mass shooting in just as many days. I’m heartbroken for El Paso and Dayton, and to all the families who have just endured unimaginable loss.
We need commonsense gun reform — now, before the next mass shooting, to stop the daily gun violence on our streets, and to make sure that our families and loved ones are safe.
But Mitch McConnell and Republicans in the Senate are blocking legislation that could help address this epidemic.
During the last election, we flipped the House. And in February, the Democratic-led House passed bipartisan legislation that would make a meaningful impact on this crisis.
But five months after passing the House, and more than six and a half years after Sandy Hook, that bill is still sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk. It’s inexcusable.
It’s clear Republicans don’t have the courage to do something about this crisis. We can’t wait for them to act — because they won’t. If we’re going to address the gun violence epidemic in our country, we need to take back the Senate in 2020.
I’ll fight my heart out to make sure Democrats win up and down the ballot in 2020 — but if we’re going to beat Republicans and the gun lobby, it’s going to take a grassroots movement.
As long as Mitch McConnell-led Senate Republicans are in power, they will stonewall and block any attempts for change. That’s because they answer to the gun lobbyists who sign their checks — no matter how many innocent people die each and every day at the hands of their inaction.
Enough is enough. We must call out what happened in El Paso and Dayton for what they are: domestic terrorism. It’s a threat to the United States, and we’ve seen its devastating toll this weekend. We need to call out the president himself for advancing racism and white supremacy. And then we need to take action.
It’s powerfully important that we support Democrats across the country and take back the Senate in 2020 — so we can take power back from Republicans, fight back against the gun lobby, and address the gun violence epidemic head on.
Thanks for being a part of this fight,
Elizabeth Warren
Click here to donate to Warren’s fund to take back the Senate.
By the way, I am going to have a diary about this soon but I must say that out of all the Senators running for President, Warren is clearly the one who is the most ready to take on Moscow Mitch:
Warren was one of 19 presidential candidates to speak at a presidential candidate forum hosted by the public-sector labor union AFSCME in Las Vegas on Saturday. HuffPost’s Amanda Terkel and Jon Ralston of The Nevada Independent, who moderated the discussion, demanded answers from Warren as to how she would get her big ideas through the notoriously slow-moving legislative body. The filibuster allows even a minority of 41 senators to block legislation from a vote on the floor.
Terkel noted that even some centrist Democrats, like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, could prove hostile to her policy priorities.
Warren began by affirming that she believes Democrats will flip the Senate and take the presidency, even as they maintain control of the House.
She then said she would pursue items on her agenda that enjoy broad bipartisan support, starting with her plan to levy a 2% tax on personal wealth over $50 million.
“That’s not only supported by an overwhelming majority of Democrats, it’s not only supported by independents ― a majority of Republicans support that. So that’s a good place to start from,” she said.
Ralston noted that Senate obstructionists have at times defied public opinion in their efforts to block legislation.
But Warren countered that the failure of the Republican legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act in the GOP-controlled Senate in December 2017 shows the difficulty of any party ignoring public opinion when constituents mobilize for or against a particular policy. Three Republican senators joined all 48 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to stop the bill in no small part because of public opposition and protest to repeal.
“Mitch McConnell worked against us every inch of the way,” she recalled of the Senate majority leader. “And how did we get it done? We did it because people across this country got organized, got mobilized, made their voices heard. I believe we can make democracy work.”
Warren might also have noted that she endorsed abolishing the filibuster in April.
Stay tuned.
