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andrew yang
McConnell Vows to Be 'Firewall' Against Progress in Senate As Democrats Mull Eliminating Filibuster
While lawmakers from both parties have used the tactic in the past, Democrats, hoping to flip the Senate, look to block GOP opposition in 2021.
Sep 15, 2020
Hoping to allow for the passage of progressive legislation, advocacy groups renewed calls to end the filibuster this week as Republican lawmakers joined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in warning against the idea.
"This threat to permanently disfigure, to disfigure the Senate, has been the latest growing drumbeat in the modern Democratic Party's war against our governing institutions," McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor Monday.
Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups have ramped up calls to abolish the filibuster--a tactic used by both parties to thwart minority party opposition to legislation in the U.S. Senate--going so far as to set up a "war room" to, according to reporting by NBC News, "wage an all-out war on the Senate filibuster in bullish anticipation of sweeping the 2020 election and passing an ambitious progressive agenda."
Following McConnell's comments, Stand Up America, a grassroots advocacy group in favor of eliminating the filibuster, pointed to the urgent need for aggressive policies to combat the climate crisis as an argument for more Democrats to endorse getting rid of the process:
Mitch McConnell has shamelessly declared that GOP senators will use the filibuster as a "firewall" against any effort to pass a progressive agenda, including legislation to address the increasing frequency of man-made climate disasters like the fires raging across the country. That is disgraceful.
More areas than just the West will face wildfires, hurricanes, and other crises unless Congress is able to pass comprehensive legislation to address climate change. If Republicans are allowed to filibuster any meaningful progress, that won't be possible.
The science is real, and the threat is increasingly deadly. When Democrats flip the Senate, they cannot waste time on meaningless negotiations. If there is any hope of ending Republicans' senseless blockade on climate action legislation, it starts with abolishing the filibuster.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have used the filibuster to counter majority-party legislative proposals, but in recent decades Democrats have moved toward supporting its elimination.
"There's nothing in the Constitution about a filibuster," former presidential candidate Andrew Yang told Ezra Klein in an interview published at Vox last week. "It is just some weird, arcane, esoteric Senate rule that took on a life of its own. And so if you're willing to put that rule above getting stuff done, then what are you doing?"
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), also former White House hopefuls, support eliminating the filibuster.
In August, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he is open to the idea, but stopped short of fully supporting it. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Republicans to do away with the filibuster when Democrats have used it to block GOP-led legislation during his tenure, calling it "stupid" and "ridiculous." But, like Democratic lawmakers who now wish to abolish the proceeding and had previously admired the use of the filibuster to block opposing party legislation, Trump has also flip-flopped on his position.
Still, progressive Democrats and advocates say the filibuster is outdated and needs to be retired.
"Rhetoric alone simply won't get it all done," Christina Harvey, managing director for Stand Up America, said in a statement earlier this month. "It's time for action--and it's time for Biden and Schumer to pledge their support for abolishing the filibuster."
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'Democracy Has Prevailed': Federal Court Rules NY Primary Must Go Forward With Sanders, Yang, and Others on Ballot
"The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals today confirmed what we knew: the state of New York acted illegally in trying to cancel the Democratic presidential primary."
May 19, 2020
A federal court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by the New York Board of Elections and ruled the state's Democratic presidential primary must take place on June 23 as scheduled, a decision that supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang celebrated as a win for democracy.
"We expect New York to work to make voting safe, rather than wasting taxpayer money trying to disenfranchise New York voters."
--Faiz Shakir, campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld District Court Judge Analisa Torres' May 5 ruling that ordered New York to restore Sanders, Yang, and other Democratic presidential candidates to the ballot after state election officials voted to remove them last month.
Yang and seven other New York residents sued the state Board of Elections over the decision on April 28.
"The removal of presidential contenders from the primary ballot not only deprived those candidates of the chance to garner votes for the Democratic Party's nomination," Torres wrote, "it deprived Democratic voters of the opportunity to elect delegates who could push their point of view in that forum."
Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the New York Board of Elections, said in a statement after Tuesday's ruling that there are no plans to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.
Faiz Shakir, Sanders' campaign manager, said the ruling "confirmed what we knew: the state of New York acted illegally in trying to cancel the Democratic presidential primary."
"With today's decision, which affirmed the District Court's recent ruling, we expect New York to work to make voting safe, rather than wasting taxpayer money trying to disenfranchise New York voters," said Shakir. "This ruling is a victory for democracy. Congratulations go to Andrew Yang, his delegates, and our delegates for standing up to this abuse of power."
Yang celebrated the ruling on Twitter.
"Thrilled that democracy has prevailed for the voters of New York!" Yang tweeted.
New York election officials claimed the effort to cancel the presidential primary was driven by concerns about spreading Covid-19, but critics said that justification did not make sense given that down-ballot races are still scheduled to take place on the same day.
"One can't help but see this as the New York Board of Elections trying to protect machine Dems from insurgent progressive primary challengers," Stephen Wolf of Daily Kos wrote last month.
Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout, a Sanders supporter, tweeted that Tuesday's ruling affirms that "you can't just say 'pandemic' and give away unconstrained power to change ballot rules."
"Good," said Teachout.
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Andrew Yang--That 2020 Hopeful With the 'Math' Pin--on Iowa Results: 'Looks Like Bernie Won'
In the (almost) final popular vote tallies—with 99.9% of precincts reporting—Sanders leads Buttigieg by 6,114 votes (43,671 to 37,557) in the first alignment, and by 2,631 votes (45,826 to 43,195) and the final alignment.
Feb 06, 2020
Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang--known for sporting his signature "MATH." pin during public appearances and 2020 debates--took a look at the result tallies that emerged from Iowa on Thursday and issued his four-word verdict: "Looks like Bernie won."
While Sen. Bernie Sanders has claimed victory in Iowa amid the fiasco, citing the superiority of his overwhelming win in the popular vote tallies as a better measure than the virtual tie in the count of state delegate equivalents (SDEs). Despite numerous reports showing that the SDE results are riddled with errors and inconsistencies--forcing major news outlets to withhold their calling of the race--former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg relied on them Thursday night to call himself the "official" winner of the caucus. As of this writing, Sanders and Buttigieg are separated by less than one-tenth of a percent in the reported tallies of the SDEs--with with Buttigieg at 26.2% and Sanders with 26.1%.
In the (almost) final popular vote tallies--with 99.9% of precincts reporting--Sanders leads Buttigieg by 6,114 votes (43,671 to 37,557) in the first alignment, and by 2,631 votes (45,826 to 43,195) and the final alignment.
While the debacle in Iowa has sown chaos for the party, it didn't take Yang much time to assess the data:
Yang wasn't alone in the set of people who read the results and also do math:
Sanders supporters, who have expressed outrage with how the reporting of the caucus results have negatively impacted their candidate, applauded Yang for speaking out:
In a statement late Thursday night, Sanders' senior adviser Jeff Weaver said that the last batch of totals released in Iowa earlier in the night "confirms Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Iowa caucus." Citing "discrepancies" found in the reporting of the state delegate equivalents, Weaver stated that the campaign believes the popular vote count is the appropriate way to judge the outcome while the "SDEs are now an antiquated and meaningless metric for deciding the winner of the Iowa caucus."
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