'Cowardice and Abdication': Democrats Grant Unanimous Consent to Adjourn Senate for 3-Day Weekend

Senate Democrats spent much of this past week warning of the authoritarian threat posed by President Donald Trump and his unelected billionaire wrecking ball, Elon Musk, and vowing to dispense with business as usual in the face of an escalating constitutional crisis.

But when Thursday night rolled around, not one Democratic senator objected to the GOP's request for unanimous consent (UC) to adjourn the chamber for a three-day weekend, infuriating advocates who are pushing the minority party to use every opportunity to obstruct Trump's nominees and far-right policy agenda.

"Letting an adjournment for the next four days go uncontested isn't just missing an opportunity to be annoying and waste time, though that's reason enough," Andy Craig, an election policy fellow at the Rainey Center, said Thursday. "It is granting the principle of the matter: We're in a right-now hour-by-hour constitutional emergency and they have a duty to be at their posts."

"The Senate adjourning for a long weekend right now isn't just some mundane procedural question," Craig added, "it is an act of cowardice and abdication, and it should be opposed as such in a way that clearly communicates that."

Under intensifying grassroots pressure to act like a real opposition party, Democratic senators did begin to slow-roll the chamber's procedures this week, including by using up all 30 hours of floor debate on the nomination of Russell Vought, the Project 2025 architect confirmed with only GOP votes on Thursday to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), also objected to several unanimous consent requests Thursday evening, forcing the chamber to hold procedural votes to move forward with additional Trump nominees. Democrats also successfully delayed consideration of Kash Patel, Trump's nominee to lead the FBI.

Those are the kinds of tactics that progressives, including members of the party, are imploring Democrats to deploy at every turn as Trump and Musk continue their lawless rampage through the federal government with the approval of Republicans in Congress.

"No business as usual. No handshakes with extremists. Democrats must use every tool available to delay and defy the Trump-Musk coup. Anything less is complicity."

Democrats don't have the votes to tank Trump nominees in the Senate, but they do have myriad tools at their disposal to grind the chamber to a halt.

"That means doing more than engaging in performative acts of Resistance before heading home for a long weekend," Vanity Fair's Eric Lutz wrote Thursday. "Mitch McConnell didn't spend his time as minority leader conducting half-assed chants outside the halls of power; he was inside, scheming and maneuvering and using whatever power he had to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. That's how you turn we will win from a rally slogan to a reality. McConnell got a Supreme Court seat out of it. Have Schumer and the Democrats been doing anything nearly as politically productive to this point?"

Craig acknowledged Thursday that forcing a roll-call vote on a motion to adjourn for the weekend would not, in itself, have done "much more than annoy" the Republican majority.

But, he asked, "would forcing a roll-call vote on everything usually handled by UC grind the Senate to a standstill?"

"Yes, and that's not just something Schumer is refusing to do," Craig added. "Every single Democratic senator is refusing to do it."

As Senate Democrats relented without objection to the GOP's motion to adjourn for a three-day weekend, Republicans reportedly planned to work through the weekend on a sweeping reconciliation bill that's expected to propose massive tax cuts for the rich and devastating cuts to Medicaid and other critical programs.

"Speaker Mike Johnson said he'll be working Saturday and through Sunday's Super Bowl taking place in New Orleans—in his and Majority Leader Steve Scalise's home state of Louisiana," Roll Callreported Thursday. "Trump, who hosted House GOP leaders for several hours to discuss reconciliation earlier in the day, is slated to attend the game Sunday."

Musk and his cronies, meanwhile, have set their sights on the Social Security Administration amid mounting legal challenges to their infiltration of federal departments and access to critical data and payment systems.

Sarah Dohl, chief campaigns officer for the progressive advocacy group Indivisible, warned in the wake of Vought's confirmation vote Thursday that "Senate Republicans just handed the power to slash essential programs—like school lunches for hungry kids, Medicaid that keeps nursing homes open, and food assistance that helps families put dinner on the table—to a man whose entire mission is economic sabotage in service of billionaires like Elon Musk."

"But let's be clear: This fight doesn't end today," said Dohl. "The next wave of extremists—including Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, RFK Jr., and Linda McMahon—must be met with even stronger resistance. No business as usual. No handshakes with extremists. Democrats must use every tool available to delay and defy the Trump-Musk coup. Anything less is complicity."