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mitch mcconnell
'This Is a Start': Senate Democrats Hold Floor Overnight to Protest Vought Nomination
Democrats "should be blowing past McConnell-level obstruction in a way that makes it look like business as usual," said one commentator.
Feb 06, 2025
Democrats took turns speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate into the early hours of Thursday morning in a show of opposition to President Donald Trump's pick to lead the White House budget office and the new administration's lawless broadside against key federal agencies—an assault led by unelected billionaire Elon Musk.
Facing growing pressure to use every tool available to obstruct an administration that they have characterized as authoritarian, Democratic senators are expected to take up all 30 hours of debate on Russell Vought, a right-wing extremist and Project 2025 architect who is poised to take charge of the Office of Management and Budget.
Unless Democrats give in and grant unanimous consent (UC) to end debate—as they've done with other Trump nominees in recent days—a vote on Vought's confirmation won't take place until Thursday evening. As of this writing, the Democratic speeches are still going.
"Americans voted each of us into office to fight for them," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said after speaking on the Senate floor for an hour late Wednesday. "They do not expect us to roll over and play dead."
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) used his floor speech to spotlight what he described as Vought's plan to "gut programs for working families" and "give massive tax giveaways to billionaires."
Watch @SenJeffMerkley lay out Project 2025 Architect and OMB Director nominee Russell Vought’s three-step plan to:
Gut programs for working families
Borrow trillions and run up debt
Give massive tax giveaways to billionaires pic.twitter.com/2oasfZJvfv
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) February 5, 2025
For experts and activists who have been urging the minority party to put up a fight in the face of Trump and Musk's destructive rampage through the federal government, the marathon protest against Vought's nomination was a positive sign—but not at all sufficient.
"This is a start but, to be clear, still nowhere close to maximum obstruction," Andy Craig, an election policy fellow at the Rainey Center, wrote on social media. "No UC, on anything. No unrecorded votes, on anything. No waiving rules, on anything. Fight even on adjournments. Quorum calls every time you can. Make every dilatory motion in the books and new ones you just made up."
"If you're not miserable every day with long hours and tedious constant votes, you're not making them miserable, either," Craig added. "Make them miserable."
While Democrats don't have the votes in the Senate to tank Trump nominees, they can severely derail the chamber's day-to-day functions in many ways. The progressive advocacy group Indivisible lists a number of them:
- Deny a quorum to completely freeze Senate business. If Republicans don't have 51 votes on the floor, Democrats can walk out, preventing the Senate from doing anything at all.
- Force Republicans to waste time by making them repeatedly prove they have a quorum instead of passing harmful legislation or confirming extremist judges.
- Make governing a miserable experience for Republicans by keeping them tied up in procedural delays instead of letting them cruise through their agenda.
- Any senator can object to a unanimous consent request, forcing Republicans to take the slowest and most painful route to pass anything.
- Blocking UC forces roll-call votes, debates, and delays on even the most basic motions, eating up hours (or days) of floor time.
- It kills fast-track confirmations. Many of Trump's judicial nominees sailed through last time because Democrats didn't force votes on each one. This time? Make them work for it.
"The easy way to think about this is when you're going and talking to your Democratic senator, you say 'Hey, imagine you are Mitch McConnell in the minority, and then do what that asshole would do,'" Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin said at a rally earlier this week.
But Craig argued late Wednesday that Democrats "should be blowing past McConnell-level obstruction in a way that makes it look like business as usual," including by breaking Senate rules.
"Mitch didn't do even 1% of what could be done by a minority determined to keep the Senate grinding in circles getting absolutely nothing done," Craig wrote.
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McConnell's Stumbles in Senate Spark Call for Medicare for All
"He won't have to worry about medical bills or skipping tests because he has high-quality, government-funded healthcare—the thing he's fought to deny the rest of us," said one single-payer campaigner.
Feb 05, 2025
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell reportedly fell twice on Capitol Hill Wednesday, but as one healthcare advocate highlighted, the 82-year-old Kentucky Republican—who's called Medicare for All a "radical scheme" that "would be serious bad news for America's hospital industry"—won't struggle to get any needed treatment.
"Mitch McConnell fell again and is obviously not well," said Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health—which fights for universal, single-payer healthcare—on social media.
"But he won't have to worry about medical bills or skipping tests because he has high-quality, government-funded healthcare—the thing he's fought to deny the rest of us," D'Arrigo added. "We need Medicare for All."
Punchbowl News' John Bresnahan and Max Cohen reported Wednesday that McConnell fell while exiting the Senate chamber, then fell again while entering a Republican lunch.
A spokesperson for the former majority leader told Bresnahan—and various other journalists—that "Sen. McConnell is fine. The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not disrupt his regular schedule of work."
McConnell contracted polio as a toddler in 1944, according toThe Associated Press. His leg was paralyzed, but after two years of treatment, he was ultimately able to walk without a brace.
After the senator's Wednesday falls, Bresnahan said that "McConnell is using a wheelchair as a precautionary measure, we're told."
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires members of Congress to obtain coverage via the D.C. Health Link Small Business Market, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's human resources agency. For lawmakers with Medicare, the federal health program for American seniors serves as a "secondary payer."
The federal government covers up to three-quarters of the premium for lawmakers' primary health plans, according to a Congressional Research Service report from 2017. Another CRS report from last June points out that "in addition, the Office of the Attending Physician provides emergency medical assistance for members of Congress, justices of the Supreme Court, staff, and visitors. Additional services are offered to members who choose to enroll for an annual fee ($650.00 in 2023)."
Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans don't have adequate health plans or lack coverage altogether. Citing the U.S. Census Bureau, the Commonwealth Fund's November 2024 report on its biennial health insurance survey notes that "an estimated 26 million Americans, or 8% of the U.S. population, lacked health insurance in 2023," and although the United States is still behind countries with universal coverage, before the ACA, 49 million, or 16% of the population, didn't have any coverage.
The U.S.-based Commonwealth Fund found that "nearly a quarter of working-age adults have insurance that leaves them underinsured," and two-thirds of those individuals had coverage through an employer plan. The survey also shows that people who were uninsured or underinsured often did not fill prescriptions, get recommended care, or visit a needed doctor or specialist.
Another survey, released Tuesday by Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and Gallup, highlights that healthcare access and affordability is a leading priority for the American public, and a majority wants the federal government to act.
"Americans ranked improving healthcare access and affordability as the highest public health priority for government leaders to address out of 15 options," states a report from the pollsters. "One in four in the U.S. selected this issue as their highest priority and more than half (52%) rated it as their first, second, or third priority."
"Majorities of both Republicans and Republican leaners, and Democrats and Democratic leaners, chose the federal government over state government as the more effective force for addressing each of the issues that emerged as a top priority for them," adds the report—which comes as the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk attack the federal government.
Despite public opinion polling, President Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress—who have long tried to restrict or fully roll back the ACA—aren't expected to work to expand health coverage, particularly via progressive proposals like Medicare for All, which has been championed on Capitol Hill by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
Still, advocates of Medicare for All
continue to call for it. As Sanders said Monday on Musk-owned X: "The U.S. spends 2x more per capita on healthcare than any other nation. Yet 85 million are uninsured or underinsured, 68,000 die because they can't afford a doctor, and we pay the highest prices in the world for Rx drugs. Healthcare is a human right. We must pass Medicare for All."
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'Deeply Shameful': Watchdog, Democratic Senators Slam Republicans for Confirming Hegseth as Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth was confirmed as secretary of defense by the Senate on Friday, with all but three Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky—voting him through.
Jan 25, 2025
Pete Hegseth—U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Pentagon—was narrowly confirmed as secretary of defense late Friday, despite a confirmation process that was rocked by allegations of sexual assault, sexist behavior, and more that critics warned made him unqualified and unfit to lead the country's largest federal agency.
"Hegseth is such a monster—just depressing for us all," wrote David Duhalde, the chair of the Democratic Socialists of America Fund on X following the Senate's confirmation of Hegseth, an army veteran and former Fox News co-host.
Hegseth was sworn in to the position on Saturday morning.
Vice President JD Vance cast a tie breaking vote to get Hegseth over the line after Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined all of the body's Democratic and Independent senators in opposing his nomination. This was only the second time that a vice president has broken a tie for a cabinet nominee, according to CNN. The other time was when Betsy DeVos faced her 2017 Senate confirmation for Secretary of Education.
McConnell—who according to NBC News was among a group of GOP members who expressed reservations about Hegseth, but voted for an earlier procedural motion to allow Hegseth's nomination to advance to a final vote—issued a lengthy statement following his confirmation.
"Effective management of nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests," McConnell wrote. "Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been."
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both her legs while deployed to Iraq in 2004, issued a statement following the vote, writing, "it is deeply shameful that tonight—despite shouting from the rooftops that they wanted to bring meritocracy back to our military—nearly every Republican chose to confirm someone who so obviously lacks the merits to serve as our Secretary of Defense," according to Fox 32 Chicago.
"Pete Hegseth's confirmation will make our nation less safe," wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a statement Friday. "His confirmation is a slap in the face to the quarter of a million active duty women in our military... Too few Republican leaders stood up for them."
"Republican Senators approved an unqualified nominee with a long history of alleged substance abuse, sexual harassment, and assault," she added.
Hegseth was able to secure the nomination despite multiple, explosive allegations that came to light during his nomination process. In November 2024, The Washington Post reported that Hegseth paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017 as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though according to Hegseth their encounter was consensual. In December, The New Yorkerreported that a whistle-blower report and other documents suggest that Hegseth was forced out of leadership positions due to sexist behavior, financial mismanagement, and being drunk on the job. Hegseth's former sister-in-law also provided the Senate Armed Services Committee with an affidavit earlier this week accusing him of being abusive toward one of his ex-wives. Hegseth has denied the allegations in the affidavit.
Hegseth has also come under scrutiny for making comments in the past that women should not serve in combat roles.
Tony Carrk, the executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, slammed the GOP senators who voted Hegseth through, writing, "this confirmation shows that most Republican Senators are willing to rubber-stamp the lowest common denominator from the Trump administration even when it puts everyday Americans in harm's way. That’s terrifying."
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