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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.) speaks during a news conference following a weekly policy luncheon on April 2, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
'If You Haven't Called Your Senators Yet... Do It Now!' McConnell Nears Nuclear Option to Pack Courts With Extremists
"McConnell has been leading an effort to rig the rules and rubber-stamp hostile nominees who lack capacity to be fair and impartial. We must condemn this."
Apr 03, 2019
With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expected as early as Wednesday to use the so-called "nuclear option" to speed up the confirmation process for President Donald Trump's right wing judicial nominees, progressives raised alarm and urged Americans to pressure their senators to stop the "reckless court packing" by the Republican Party.
"McConnell has signaled he is ready to use the so-called 'nuclear option' to further pack the courts with Trump's lifetime judicial appointments," tweeted the progressive advocacy group 5 Calls. "Tell the Senate to block McConnell and stop further erosion of our democratic norms!"
\u201c\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 McConnell is moving forward w/ the nuclear option to limit floor debate on district judge nominations & speed roll extremists onto the federal bench.\u00a0\n\nIf you haven't called your Senators yet to stop this reckless court packing, DO IT NOW. \ud83d\udd25\u260e\ufe0f\ud83d\udd25: https://t.co/hPznoG9OXk\u201d— 5 Calls \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@5 Calls \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1554235058
On Tuesday, Republicans failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to advance S. Res 50, which would change Senate rules to cut debate time on district court nominees and other lower-level judges from 30 hours to just two hours.
The vote, which was expected to fail, set the stage for McConnell to use the "nuclear option," which would allow the resolution to pass with just a simple majority of 51 votes.
McConnell is expected to begin the process on Wednesday, HuffPost reported.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, denounced McConnell for attempting to carry out "a short-sighted, partisan power grab."
"And it is motivated by the far-right's desire to flood the federal judiciary with young, ideological nominees, many of whom--as we have seen time and again in the Judiciary Committee--are simply unqualified to serve on our nation's courts," Leahy said. "Post-cloture time is a critical tool for senators, especially those who do not sit on the Judiciary Committee, to vet nominees for lifetime judgeships."
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, tweeted, "Presidencies aren't forever. But federal court nominations last a lifetime."
"McConnell has been leading an effort to rig the rules and rubber-stamp hostile nominees who lack capacity to be fair and impartial," Clarke added. "We must condemn this."
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With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expected as early as Wednesday to use the so-called "nuclear option" to speed up the confirmation process for President Donald Trump's right wing judicial nominees, progressives raised alarm and urged Americans to pressure their senators to stop the "reckless court packing" by the Republican Party.
"McConnell has signaled he is ready to use the so-called 'nuclear option' to further pack the courts with Trump's lifetime judicial appointments," tweeted the progressive advocacy group 5 Calls. "Tell the Senate to block McConnell and stop further erosion of our democratic norms!"
\u201c\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 McConnell is moving forward w/ the nuclear option to limit floor debate on district judge nominations & speed roll extremists onto the federal bench.\u00a0\n\nIf you haven't called your Senators yet to stop this reckless court packing, DO IT NOW. \ud83d\udd25\u260e\ufe0f\ud83d\udd25: https://t.co/hPznoG9OXk\u201d— 5 Calls \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@5 Calls \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1554235058
On Tuesday, Republicans failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to advance S. Res 50, which would change Senate rules to cut debate time on district court nominees and other lower-level judges from 30 hours to just two hours.
The vote, which was expected to fail, set the stage for McConnell to use the "nuclear option," which would allow the resolution to pass with just a simple majority of 51 votes.
McConnell is expected to begin the process on Wednesday, HuffPost reported.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, denounced McConnell for attempting to carry out "a short-sighted, partisan power grab."
"And it is motivated by the far-right's desire to flood the federal judiciary with young, ideological nominees, many of whom--as we have seen time and again in the Judiciary Committee--are simply unqualified to serve on our nation's courts," Leahy said. "Post-cloture time is a critical tool for senators, especially those who do not sit on the Judiciary Committee, to vet nominees for lifetime judgeships."
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, tweeted, "Presidencies aren't forever. But federal court nominations last a lifetime."
"McConnell has been leading an effort to rig the rules and rubber-stamp hostile nominees who lack capacity to be fair and impartial," Clarke added. "We must condemn this."
With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expected as early as Wednesday to use the so-called "nuclear option" to speed up the confirmation process for President Donald Trump's right wing judicial nominees, progressives raised alarm and urged Americans to pressure their senators to stop the "reckless court packing" by the Republican Party.
"McConnell has signaled he is ready to use the so-called 'nuclear option' to further pack the courts with Trump's lifetime judicial appointments," tweeted the progressive advocacy group 5 Calls. "Tell the Senate to block McConnell and stop further erosion of our democratic norms!"
\u201c\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 McConnell is moving forward w/ the nuclear option to limit floor debate on district judge nominations & speed roll extremists onto the federal bench.\u00a0\n\nIf you haven't called your Senators yet to stop this reckless court packing, DO IT NOW. \ud83d\udd25\u260e\ufe0f\ud83d\udd25: https://t.co/hPznoG9OXk\u201d— 5 Calls \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@5 Calls \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1554235058
On Tuesday, Republicans failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to advance S. Res 50, which would change Senate rules to cut debate time on district court nominees and other lower-level judges from 30 hours to just two hours.
The vote, which was expected to fail, set the stage for McConnell to use the "nuclear option," which would allow the resolution to pass with just a simple majority of 51 votes.
McConnell is expected to begin the process on Wednesday, HuffPost reported.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, denounced McConnell for attempting to carry out "a short-sighted, partisan power grab."
"And it is motivated by the far-right's desire to flood the federal judiciary with young, ideological nominees, many of whom--as we have seen time and again in the Judiciary Committee--are simply unqualified to serve on our nation's courts," Leahy said. "Post-cloture time is a critical tool for senators, especially those who do not sit on the Judiciary Committee, to vet nominees for lifetime judgeships."
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, tweeted, "Presidencies aren't forever. But federal court nominations last a lifetime."
"McConnell has been leading an effort to rig the rules and rubber-stamp hostile nominees who lack capacity to be fair and impartial," Clarke added. "We must condemn this."
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LATEST NEWS
'The Tide Is Turning,' Says Sanders as Majority of Senate Dems Vote to Block Arms Sales to Israel
"The American people do not want to spend billions to starve children in Gaza," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "The Democrats are moving forward on this issue, and I look forward to Republican support in the near future."
Jul 31, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' latest effort to block additional American arms sales to Israel failed again late Wednesday at the hands of every Republican senator and some Democrats.
But a majority of the Senate Democratic caucus voted in favor of Sanders-led resolutions that aimed to halt the Trump administration's sale of 1,000-pound bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits, and tens of thousands of assault rifles to the Israeli government.
The first resolution, S.J.Res.41, failed by a vote of 27-70, and the second, S.J.Res.34, failed by a vote of 24-73, with the effort to block the sale of assault rifles to the Israeli government garnering slightly more support than the bid to prevent the sale of bombs.
The following senators voted to block the assault rifle sale: Sanders, Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
And the following senators voted to block the sale of additional bombs: Sanders, Alsobrooks, Baldwin, Blunt Rochester, Duckworth, Durbin, Heinrich, Hirono, Kaine, Kim, King, Klobuchar, Luján, Markey, Merkley, Murphy, Murray, Schatz, Shaheen, Smith, Van Hollen, Warnock, Warren, and Welch.
Three Democratic senators—Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan—did not vote on either resolution.
"Every senator who voted to continue sending weapons today voted against the will of their constituents."
In a statement responding to the vote, Sanders said growing Democratic support for halting arms sales to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an indication that "the tide is turning" in the face of Israel's "horrific, immoral, and illegal war against the Palestinian people."
"The American people do not want to spend billions to starve children in Gaza," the senator said. "The Democrats are moving forward on this issue, and I look forward to Republican support in the near future."
Wednesday's votes revealed a significant increase in support for halting U.S. military support for the Israeli government compared to earlier this year, when only 14 Democratic senators backed similar Sanders-led resolutions.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who did not vote on the Sanders resolutions in April, said Wednesday that "this legislative tool is not perfect, but frankly it is time to say enough to the suffering of innocent young children and families."
"As a longtime friend and supporter of Israel, I am voting yes to send a message: The Netanyahu government cannot continue with this strategy," said Murray. "Netanyahu has prolonged this war at every turn to stay in power. We are witnessing a man-made famine in Gaza—children and families should not be dying from starvation or disease when literal tons of aid and supplies are just sitting across the border."
The Senate votes came days after the official death toll in Gaza surpassed 60,000 and a new poll showed that U.S. public support for Israel's assault on the Palestinian enclave reached a new low, with just 32% of respondents expressing approval. The Gallup survey found that support among Democratic voters has cratered, with just 8% voicing approval of the Israeli assault.
"The vast majority of Democratic voters say Israel is committing genocide, and have repeatedly demanded that their party's elected officials in Congress stop helping President Trump deliver more and more weapons to Israel with our tax dollars," Margaret DeReus, executive director of the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, said Wednesday. "Tonight proved that an increasing number of Democrats in the Senate–more than half of the Democratic caucus–are hearing that demand."
Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, called the vote "unprecedented" and said it "shows that the dam is breaking in U.S. politics."
"Our job is to increase the pressure on every member of Congress to stop all weapons and military funding," said Miller. "For 22 months, the U.S. has enabled, funded, and armed the Israeli government's slaughter and starvation in Gaza, and still the majority of senators just voted to continue sending weapons to a military live-streaming its crimes against humanity."
"The overwhelming majority of Americans want to stop the flow of deadly weapons to the Israeli military and end U.S. complicity in its horrific genocide against Palestinians," Miller added. "Every senator who voted to continue sending weapons today voted against the will of their constituents."
GOP AGs Urge Congress to Crack Down on Shield Laws and Telehealth Abortions
The Republican coalition targeted California and New York, both home to doctors who have been targeted by legal cases for allegedly providing abortion pills to patients in states with strict bans.
Jul 30, 2025
While a recently filed lawsuit in Texas jeopardizes the future of telehealth abortions, some Republican state attorneys general don't want the GOP-controlled Congress to wait for the results of that case, and this week urged leaders on Capitol Hill to consider passing federal legislation that would restrict doctors from shipping pills to patients to end their pregnancies.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority ended nationwide abortion rights with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization three years ago, anti-choice state lawmakers have ramped up efforts to restrict reproductive freedom. At the same time, some Democratic officials have enacted "shield laws" to protect in-state providers and traveling patients.
Led by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, 16 state AGs on Tuesday wrote to top congressional leaders from both parties, calling on them to "assess the constitutional authority it may have to preempt shield laws."
Griffin also sent cease-and-desist letters to two entities shipping abortion medication within the United States and two website companies that provide services to LifeOnEasyPills.org. Reporting on the AG's press conference, South Carolina Daily Gazette noted that "if the entities don't cease advertising abortion pills in Arkansas, Griffin said his office may bring a lawsuit against them for violating the state's deceptive trade practices law."
While Griffin also "said he believes what he is asking lawmakers to do is different from a federal abortion ban that the closely divided Congress has seemed hesitant to tackle," according to the Daily Gazette, advocates for reproductive rights disagreed.
Responding to the letter to Congress on social media, the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All shared a petition opposing a national abortion ban. It says that Republican President Donald Trump "has proven time and time again that he is out of touch with the 8 in 10 Americans who support protecting abortion rights."
"On the campaign trail he spewed whatever lies he could to get him reelected. Now he'll use the Project 2025 playbook to further restrict our right to access abortion, contraception, fertility treatments, and more," the petition warns. "We must stop him."
Yesterday, 16 Republican attorneys general sent a letter to congressional leadership urging them to override state telemedicine abortion shield laws.Sign the petition below to stand up to Republican lawmakers!act.reproductivefreedomforall.org/a/no-nationa...
[image or embed]
— Reproductive Freedom for All (@reproductivefreedomforall.org) July 30, 2025 at 3:48 PM
In addition to Griffin, the Tuesday letter is signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The GOP coalition targeted two states, arguing that "when New York or California refuses to respect a criminal prosecution or a civil judgment against an individual who is accused of violating the abortion laws of another state, they are refusing to give full faith and credit to that state's judicial proceedings."
Last December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against a provider in New York. He sued Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT), for providing two drugs used in medication abortions—mifepristone and misoprostol—to a 20-year-old resident of Collin County.
In February, on the same day that Texas State District Judge Bryan Gantt ordered Carpenter to pay over $100,000 in fines and fees, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sought to extradite the ACT doctor. Her state classifies mifepristone and misoprostol as dangerous controlled substances.
While Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed the extradition warrant sought by Murrill and the district attorney, New York is one of nearly two dozen states with shield laws for reproductive healthcare, and its Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, said that "I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana—not now, not ever."
On Monday, Paxton took legal action against Taylor Brucka, the clerk in Ulster County, New York, for refusing to make Carpenter pay the $100,000 penalty. Bruck told The Guardian that "it's really unprecedented for a clerk to be in this position" and "I'm just proud to live in a state that has something like the shield law here to protect our healthcare providers from out-of-state proceedings like this."
Meanwhile, another case involving a California doctor emerged in Texas earlier this month: A man filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Rémy Coeytaux for allegedly mailing to Galveston County medication that his girlfriend used to end her pregnancy. His lawyer is Jonathan Mitchell, an "anti-abortion legal terrorist" who previously served as the state's solicitor general and was the chief architect of its law that entices anti-choice vigilantes with $10,000 bounties to enforce a six-week ban.
Mary Ziegler, an abortion historian and law professor at the University of California, Davis, recently told Mother Jones that "the whole game for Jonathan Mitchell is to get into federal court... both because he wants to shut down doctors in shield law states, like everyone in the anti-abortion movement, and because he wants a federal court to weigh in on the Comstock Act," a dormant 1873 law that criminalized the shipping of "obscene" materials, including abortifacients.
Bessent Admits Trump Tax Scam Offers 'Backdoor for Privatizing Social Security'
"Despite their repeated claims they wanted to protect Social Security, the Trump administration said the quiet part out loud," said one critic in response to the billionaire treasury secretary's candid comments.
Jul 30, 2025
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday admitted that a provision in Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a mechanism for privatizing Social Security—something President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he won't do.
Speaking at a policy event hosted by the far-right news site Breitbart, Bessent touted the so-called "Trump accounts" available to all U.S. citizen children starting next July under the OBBBA signed by the president earlier this month.
"In a way, it is a backdoor way for privatizing Social Security," the billionaire former hedge fund manager said of the accounts. "Social Security is a defined benefit plan paid out—that to the extent that if all of a sudden these accounts grow, and you have in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for your retirement, that's a game-changer."
Responding to Bessent's admission, Tim Hogan—the Democratic National Committee senior adviser for messaging, mobilization, and strategy—said that the treasury secretary "just said the quiet part out loud: The administration is scheming to privatize Social Security."
"It wasn't enough to kick millions of people off their healthcare and take food away from hungry kids," Hogan added. "Trump is now coming after American seniors with a 'backdoor' scam to take away the benefits they earned. Democrats won't stand by as Trump screws over working families in order to give more handouts to billionaires."
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said in a statement: "Today, the treasury secretary said the quiet part out loud: Republicans' ultimate goal is to privatize Social Security, and there isn't a backdoor they won't try to make Wall Street's dream a reality. For everyone else though, it's yet another warning sign that they cannot be trusted to safeguard the program millions rely on and have paid into over a lifetime of work."
Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, mocked Trump's promises to preserve the key program upon which more than 70 million Americans rely—and called him out for eviscerating the Social Security Administration (SSA).
"So much for Donald Trump's campaign promise to protect Social Security," Altman said in a statement. "First, he gave Elon Musk the power to gut SSA. Now, Trump's treasury secretary has said the quiet part out loud. He is bragging about the administration's goal to privatize Social Security."
"First, they are undermining public confidence in Social Security by making false claims about fraud (which is virtually nonexistent) and wrecking the system's service to the public," Altman continued. "Then, once they have broken Social Security, they will say that Wall Street needs to come in and save it."
"That is a terrible idea," she added. "Unlike private savings, Social Security is a guaranteed earned benefit that you can't outlive. It has stood strong through wars, recessions, and pandemics. The American people have a message for Trump and Bessent: Keep Wall Street's hands off our Social Security!"
Alliance for Retired Americans executive director Richard Fiesta said that "Bessent let the cat out of the bag: This administration is coming for Social Security."
"We're not surprised—but we are alarmed because this administration has already taken multiple steps to weaken and dismantle Social Security," Fiesta added, highlighting the weakening of the SSA, false fraud claims, and "the massive tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations" under the OBBBA that experts say will hasten the Social Security Trust Fund's insolvency.
The progressive watchdog Accountable.US called Bessent's remarks "a shocking confession."
"Despite their repeated claims they wanted to protect Social Security, the Trump administration said the quiet part out loud: The Big Ugly Betrayal is a backdoor way to privatize Social Security," Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk said in a statement.
"Once again the administration is risking the financial security of millions of Americans in order to protect a system rigged in the favor of big corporations and billionaires," Carrk added.
In another blow to Social Security recipients, the Trump administration is set to implement a new policy next month that is expected to further increase wait times for basic services. As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, starting in mid-August, SSA will no longer allow seniors to use their phones for routine tasks they've been able to perform for decades.
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