Seeing a lot of people giving @SenSchumer love for voting against the CR tonight over #DreamActNow. Let’s clear something up: He may have *personally* voted against the CR tonight, but he is most responsible for it tonight. Here’s why: 1/
He’s the Dem Leader — his most important job is to keep Democrats together, especially on tough votes. He deserves a lot of credit for keeping Dems together on healthcare and taxes (made possible by grassroots opposition) 2
He decided tonight that he wanted the CR to pass, and then manufactured it. Republicans needed 9 Democratic votes in the Senate and they got 18. 3/
He *allowed* some Democrats to vote against the CR but *made sure* that enough Dems voted for it. He made sure the CR passed tonight. 4/
NY Indivisible groups have been demanding that he use his leverage to get the DREAM Act done in December — as he said he would! Again, this was HIS STRATEGY. He failed to deliver, and now nearly 4,000 DACAmented will lose status in the next 4 weeks. 5/
The fact that @SenSchumer (who BTW has a nice Dreamer-related banner on his twitter account) voted against the CR is meaningless. It’s Senate theatrics at its worst. He had leverage to use tonight, and chose not to. 6/
Don’t be fooled. @SenSchumer may have *personally* voted against the CR, but he is responsible for the 18 Democratic votes that voted for the CR. 7/
So if a vote for the CR was a vote to deport Dreamers, then tonight Schumer voted 18x over to deport Dreamers. 8/
Right now, @SenSchumer is the Leader of the #DeportationCaucus. But he’ll have another chance to be a real leader in 4 weeks, the next time he’ll have leverage to use.
We ask that he publicly commit to voting against the next funding bill unless it contains the Dream Act. 9/9
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2. This is a big deal and signals what the Trump Admin cares -- and doesn't care -- about. It cares more about separating, detaining, and deporting immigrant families than it does the health and safety of our communities, than it does responding to natural disasters.
3. But it's not a surprise, nor is it unsusual. In fact, earlier this year DHS transferred an additional $200M to support Trump's mass deportation machine. @SenJeffMerkley deserves a shout out for helping to shed light on all of this. cnn.com/2018/09/12/pol…
Update: @SenSchumer just used procedural tools to (briefly) delay Kavanaugh hearings. This might seem like Schumer is fighting to #StopKanavaugh, but it's *not* the most important thing he could be doing if he wanted to win this fight. thehill.com/homenews/senat… 1/
To recap, Democrats have few tools when they're in the minority to stop bad bills or nominees from moving forward. But one tool at their disposal is "withholding consent". Here's our explainer on it: indivisible.org/resource/senat… 2/
That's exactly what Schumer did today -- he withheld consent on McConnell's request to continue with the Kavanaugh hearing beyond the time allowed. Normally, we'd applaud this kind of resistance. 3/
To every MoC (or candidate!) who isn't speaking out against Trump's new family separation policy, I remind you of this quote:
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis preserve their neutrality.” #FamiliesBelongTogether 1/
This quote seems now to have been written specifically with Trump-era America in mind: From the #MuslimBan to taking healthcare from millions to ripping children away from parents at the border, our great moral crisis continues.
Yet, too many MoCs continue to remain silent. 2/
Still, it’s hard to imagine something any more cruel and grotesque than what the Trump White House is doing now to families at the U.S. border. 3/
The Senate has begun considering the #BankLobbyistAct, which will make it more likely that we have a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. This is a core part of the Republican agenda: siding with big banks, corporations, and the wealthy, at the expense of the rest of us. [Thread]
Mitch McConnell, Republicans, and Donald Trump don’t care about the enormous risk this creates for our country and for American families. That’s not surprising. What is surprising is that Democrats are pushing the #BankLobbyistAct over the finish line.
We’re seeing something that we often see from Democratic leadership — that might only be obvious to you if you’ve worked on the Hill or have covered the Hill. Dem leadership might be ostensibly opposed to this bill, but is LETTING this bill pass. Here’s how.
This afternoon the Senate is turning to DACA and immigration, beginning with a “motion to proceed” vote. The burden is on Republicans to fix the mess that Donald Trump made on #DACA, as a majority of Americans want them to. [Thread]
Remember, we got here because Donald Trump ended the DACA program back in Sept. And 20,000 DACA recipients have already lost their protections as a result. He then rejected a bipartisan agreement reached by @SenatorDurbin and @LindseyGrahamSC, because it wasn’t racist enough.
So here we are — in an open debate on immigration with a Republican-controlled Congress. If you care about immigrants and #Dreamers, you should be worried. And while we all want relief for Dreamers, we can’t and won’t take just any deal.