Senator Jeff Sessions, if confirmed to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s Attorney General, will be tasked with enforcing the laws of the United States, and a major concern of his critics has been that he does not seem to understand or concern himself with those laws, especially around protecting equality. In an yet another alarming […]

All but two Republicans just voted for Donald Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos. Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie and she was confirmed. It should not have gotten this far. DeVos does not know the basics of education policy. As Senator Al Franken (D-MN) exposed at her Senate confirmation hearing, she did not even know the […]

Senator Al Franken is not a lawyer. He made this point repeatedly while grilling Senator Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing, in order to underscore that Sessions’ carefully parsed questions about his claimed involvement sounded like nonsensical rubbish to his layman’s ears. But Franken laid out his case that Sessions has exaggerated his civil rights […]

At his confirmation hearing for the position of Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was confronted by Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) for saying that women and LGBT people did not experience the sort of discrimination that hate crimes legislation addresses. Sessions responded with the twin defenses that he had said no such thing, and/or that […]

Moments after Donald Trump announced Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat, Senate Democrats and progressive organizations reacted with vigor, denouncing Republicans for stealing the seat and promising to fight the nomination based on Gorsuch’s troubling record. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) immediately noted “very serious doubts” about […]

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), was met almost immediately with strong questioning about his record and views on both reproductive rights and marriage equality during his confirmation hearing today. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, began her questioning by bringing up the Hyde Amendment, […]

In between impassioned floor speeches, Senators are taking to Twitter to express gratitude to constituents for their thousands of calls and give encouragement to make more; announce what late-night hour they will be “holding the floor”; and offer an endless inventory of the reasons why this last stand in opposition to the “least qualified nominee in a historically unqualified […]

On Fox and Friends, Mike Pence told host Brian Kilmeade that “it’ll be my honor” to lead an investigation into Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud — which are wholly baseless — but conspicuously skirted the question that Kilmeade actually asked (emphasis mine): KILMEADE: You know you have got another job today. He put you in […]

With the GOP moving forward on their disastrous repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Senate Democrats are highlighting the stories and voices of Americans whose lives have been improved, or even saved, by the law. In a public forum held Thursday, five women told their stories, which had originally been submitted for testimony against Representative Tom […]

For the first time, a sitting Senator will testify against another sitting Senator when Cory Booker (D-NJ) appears before the Judiciary Committee during Jeff Sessions’ (R-AL) nomination hearing for Attorney General. Booker explained his remarkable decision to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes: .@CoryBooker will testify against his colleague @SenatorSessions: “These are extraordinary times” #inners https://t.co/7uhCLf8PaX — All […]

Senate Republicans are proceeding full steam ahead to railroad Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees through a fast-track confirmation process, shielding them from ethics scrutiny and financial disclosure requirements. Voters have raised their voices in opposition, and Democrats — including Senator Elizabeth Warren — have forcefully criticized Senate Republicans for abetting the Trump transition ethics crisis. Senator […]

Shareblue has already covered some of the many reasons why Secretary of the Treasury-designate Steve Mnuchin is a wholly unqualified and conflicted choice to lead the Treasury Department. And at the confirmation hearing Thursday morning, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) broke some new ground with a tough grilling over Mnuchin’s failure to initially disclose $100 million in real estate […]

Senate Republicans have been scheming to protect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees from routine ethics scrutiny, and Senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing back hard, rightly accusing Trump’s nominees of “drag[ging] their feet on ethics paperwork while their Senate friends try to run out the clock.” .@SenateMajLdr & the @SenateGOP are desperately trying to rush Senate confirmation […]

When Donald Trump announced former Texas Governor Rick Perry as his nominee to run the Department of Energy, it was a baffling choice. One of Perry’s most infamous moments on the national stage, during a Republican primary debate in 2011, was when he attempted to list three departments he would eliminate if he became President […]

In a hearing held Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, members from both parties boldly confronted ongoing disparagement of the U.S. intelligence community by President-Elect Donald Trump. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, NSA Director and U.S. Cyber Commander Admiral Michael Rogers, and Defense Under Secretary for Intelligence Marcel Lattre presented testimony before the […]

During an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, Senator Tim Kaine reminded us why he was such an excellent choice for the Democratic ticket, precisely detailing the many concerns about Donald Trump’s alarming relationship with Vladimir Putin, his hostility toward the intelligence community, and his perplexing and worrying indifference to protecting “American electoral systems from invasion […]

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has announced that he will oppose Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Following a meeting with Sessions, who is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing next Tuesday, Brown indicated that he is unconvinced that Sessions will defend civil rights — a […]

President-elect Donald Trump has pushed hard to undermine the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s cyberattacks were intended to hand him the election, including the lie that there is “absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results.” And while the corporate media has pointed out that the intel community made no such assessment, they have […]

In 2012, after years of attempts to get the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act — known as the DREAM Act — through Congress and onto his desk, President Obama announced that his administration would stop deporting certain young undocumented immigrants who met specific criteria, and who would have been protected by the DREAM Act. […]

On December 15, President Obama made it clear his administration planned to take action against Russia for their unprecedented interference in the U.S. presidential election, saying: “I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections … we need to take action. And we will — […]

As the 115th Congress is sworn in, it is important to remember that, while Republicans maintain control over both the Senate and the House of Representatives, they will be joined by twelve new female colleagues who bring a diversity of backgrounds — and a readiness to fight — to the table. Indeed, the Democratic caucus taking […]

For any Democrat or liberal voter who may be feeling demoralized and afraid while looking ahead to the new year and the inauguration of Donald Trump, new reporting from Burgess Everett at Politico provides much-needed hope and strength. Senate Democrats, eager to expose the president-elect as a fraud full of broken promises, see the confirmation hearings […]

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has joined Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Jack Reed (D-RI) in requesting, via a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a select, independent investigation into the nature and extent of Russian hacking during the presidential election. Following news of the CIA assessment which concluded Russia intervened […]

.@SenSchumer: "America cannot afford a Twitter presidency" https://t.co/BxSfjCh6LK pic.twitter.com/Jh4h8717dF — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 3, 2017 …challenges too entrenched for mere tweeting. Making America great again requires more than 140 characters per issue. With all due respect, America cannot afford a Twitter presidency. We have real challenges and we have real needs to get […]

We have been tracking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to sabotage accountability for Russian interference in the election by using a partisan committee to head off any truly meaningful investigation. And in an interview with Kentucky Educational Television, McConnell continued the strategy of insisting that Russian hacking is a big deal — but one that […]

A group of former congressional staffers — Ezra Levin, Angel Padilla, and Jeremy Haile — has published a crucial guide to the coming resistance against a Donald Trump administration, providing action steps and advice for Democrats seeking ways to fight back against an authoritarian and dangerous Republican government. The hope, they write in the introduction, is for “stiffening […]

We are in the midst of a national crisis: The U.S. intelligence community has confirmed that Russia interfered in the election, in order to help Donald Trump get elected. They now have evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was orchestrating the interference. This was not, as Trump has suggested, just some hacker sitting on his […]

Previously, I have written about the underhanded strategy of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) coming out in favor of a Senate investigation of Russian election tampering while actually taking steps to ensure any investigation goes nowhere. He is not alone: His colleague, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), is adopting the same stance. A month ago, Corker appeared to […]

In a bipartisan effort to increase access to mental health care across the United States, President Barack Obama signed important legislation that would expand states’ ability to integrate mental and physical care and identify gaps in coverage. The 21st Century Cures Act, which contains broad funding for cancer research and substance abuse treatment, also includes a mental […]

In the wake of the explosive revelations that the “consensus view” of the intelligence community is “that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” Democrats have stepped up and demanded answers, along with a few notable Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), however, wants us […]