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Senate Democrats closed down the chamber floor Wednesday to protest the confirmation hearings of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The hearings were able to continue, but only after the GOP agreed to quit floor business for the rest of the day. Under Senate rules, committees need consent from both sides of the aisle to meet into the afternoon when the floor is also in session. Consent is almost always granted...

Hours before Brett Kavanaugh arrived for his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Chuck Schumer and frustrated fellow Democratic senators debated staging a mass walkout — or not showing up at all. For weeks, the party grappled with how to force the release of millions of pages of missing Kavanaugh documents after Republicans spurned their previous attempts. The discussions culminated during a Labor Day conference call: Senators weighed the drastic protest measures but opted against them, worried about what would come next and whether the fallout from a made-for-TV moment would undercut their efforts to defeat the nomination, according to multiple...

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) revealed Democrat plans for next year at a Labor Day parade on Monday when he, using a bullhorn, told a crowd member that he and Democrats intend to impeach President Donald Trump should they gain control of the Congress.The comments by Schumer are, to date, the most significant and open pledge that Democrats intend to impeach Trump on day one of a Democrat-controlled Congress. “When are you going to impeach Trump?” a man shouted as Schumer walked by, carrying a bullhorn.“The sooner the better!” the Senate minority leader fired back. “The sooner the...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., intends to introduce a resolution in the Senate to rename a Senate office building after the late Sen. John McCain, he announced Saturday. McCain, R-Ariz., died Saturday at 81 following his battle with brain cancer. His death comes after the senator’s family announced Friday he would be discontinuing medical treatment. Schumer, along with other congressional leaders, praised McCain for his service in the military and the Senate, as well as his patriotism and courage.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday said that the Senate Judiciary Committee should delay its confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the wake of former President Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's guilty plea. "It's a game changer. It should be. ... In my view, the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately pause the consideration of the Kavanaugh nomination," Schumer said from the Senate floor. He added that he thought Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had scheduled Kavanaugh's hearing "too soon" and he believed it should be delayed. Kavanaugh's hearing is scheduled to...

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W. Va.) had strong words for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (N.Y.) efforts to unify the party against President Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Manchin suggested to Politico that Schumer does not have any influence over whether or not he supports Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. “I’ll be 71 years old in August, you’re going to whip me? Kiss my you know what,” Manchin told Politico, referring to whipping votes among the party caucus. Schumer has spoken out harshly against Kavanaugh and vowed to oppose him “with everything I’ve got.” Democrats will need at least two GOP votes, in...

Chuck Schumer (‏Verified account) @SenSchumer President Trump should not meet with President Putin alone. 6:11 AM - 11 Jul 2018

Full title.......................Democrats demand access to potentially millions of files on Kavanaugh as Schumer vows to use 'everything I've got' to stop nomination............ Brett Kavanaugh's work record includes nearly 300 written opinions, a multitude of scholarly articles, and paperwork from the Bush White House and Starr probe Democrats could delay a confirmation hearing past the Senate's August recess if they demand every page of the millions of records Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to use all the weapons in his arsenal to stop Kavanaugh The White House said they expect Democrats 'to look for any reason that they can poke...

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) privately urged President Trump in a phone call earlier this week to nominate federal Judge Merrick B. Garland, then President Barack Obama’s third nominee to the Supreme Court who was summarily shunned by Senate Republicans in 2016, to replace retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Trump had called Schumer on Tuesday afternoon for a Supreme Court-centered conversation that lasted less than five minutes, according to a person familiar with the call. Schumer, the person said, pressed the president to name Garland to succeed Kennedy, arguing doing so would help unite the country.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly asked President Trump to nominate Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick this week; urging the Commander-in-Chief to put forward Merrick Garland to replace outgoing Justice Anthony Kennedy. According to the Hill, Schumer made the request in private; asking Trump to advance Garland after his nomination process stalled in 2016. “A person familiar with the conversation said on Thursday that Schumer told Trump in a phone call that lasted less than five minutes on Tuesday that the move would help unify the country,” writes the Hill. The Democratic leader penned an editorial in the New York...

Sen. Chuck Schumer used the occasion of Sunday’s NYC Pride March to announce that his daughter, Alison, will be marrying her fiancée, Elizabeth Weiland. The women plan to walk down the aisle on Nov. 18. “Marching in the #NYCPride Parade has special meaning this year as I am marching with my daughter Alison and her wonderful fiancée Biz! #HappyPride,” tweeted the politician, who wore a lavender shirt to the pride parade.[SNIP]

This NY Times excerpt provided more insight on Schumer’s critical moment against Trump: “In an hourlong meeting on Capitol Hill with House Republicans, Mr. Trump declined to explicitly back either one, saying he would sign both bills. Republican leaders are trying to rally support for the compromise bill. “The president was very firm in explaining why it’s so important that he gets this bill to his desk so that we can solve some problems and secure our border,” said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican whip. He added, “We want to secure our border; we want to reunite kids....

President Donald Trump attacked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday, saying the New York Democrat was wrong when he criticized the president's historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as "all hat and no cattle." "Thank you Chuck, but are you sure you got that right? No more nuclear testing or rockets flying all over the place, blew up launch sites," the president wrote on Twitter. "Hostages already back, hero remains coming home & much more!" Schumer, in a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, questioned just what the U.S. gained from the summit. “The summit...

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday criticized a joint diplomatic statement released a few hours before from President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un as lacking detail and giving Kim too much room to back out. Schumer said by meeting with Kim, Trump has given “a brutal and repressive dictatorship the international legitimacy it has long craved.” “It is best not to dive in head first and hope for the best but rather to work slowly, transparently and verifiably to build trust and lock in concessions,” Schumer warned. Schumer argued the agreement lacks detail on achieving...

Sen. Chuck Schumer dismissed President Trump’s sitdown with North Korea's Kim Jong Un as nothing more than “a reality show summit.” Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, said Trump has already given up American leverage on North Korea. Schumer said if Pyongyang doesn't give up its nuclear weapons, the "meeting alone will be a victory for North Korea and a defeat for the U.S." Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) said he was similarly surprised on Tuesday, telling reporters he is “very troubled” by the stalling of military exercises in the region. “I was surprised, frankly, because the President had said...

A Senate panel on Tuesday rebuked President Trump's efforts to ease sanctions on the Chinese telecom firm ZTE, which the intelligence community and trade regulators have warned poses a national security risk for the U.S. The Senate Banking Committee approved an amendment in an overwhelming and bipartisan 23-2 vote that would block Trump from easing sanctions on ZTE without first certifying to Congress that the company is complying with U.S. law. The move comes the same day The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration and China are closing in on a deal to ease off ZTE in exchange...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Monday that he will vote for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of State, making him the second Democrat to support Pompeo's nomination. "After meeting with Mike Pompeo, discussing his foreign policy perspectives, & considering his distinguished time as CIA Director & his exemplary career in public service, I will vote to confirm Mike Pompeo to be our next Secretary of State," Manchin said in a tweet. Pompeo likely already had the votes to be confirmed by the full Senate. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expected to oppose him, Pompeo needed...

Top Democrats are calling on Congress to give the FBI $300 million to fight potential foreign interference in this year's midterm elections, a request that comes just days after the Justice Department indicted Russians for meddling in the 2016 presidential contest. The letter being sent Wednesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and top Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations committees calls on Republicans to provide the funding as part of "a robust and urgent response" to the Russian government's attempts to interfere in American elections. "Congress must respond immediately to attacks...

Immigration activists are furious that 73 House Democrats, including seven members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, voted for a bipartisan spending bill that doesn't include a DACA fix. The early-morning House vote ended a brief government shutdown precipitated by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and in the process passed a two-year spending proposal that included a bevy of Democratic priorities, but not immigration. “Last night immigrant young people and people of conscience fighting for justice were betrayed by both parties,” said Greisa Martínez Rosas, a DACA recipient and advocacy director for United We Dream, an immigrant youth activism network. Senate Democrats...

House conservatives on Wednesday revolted against a massive bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and bust spending caps, complaining that the GOP could no longer lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility. “I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no,’ ” quipped Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), one of many members of the Tea Party-aligned Freedom Caucus who left a closed-door meeting of Republicans saying they would vote against the deal. It’s a “Christmas tree on steroids,” lamented one of the Freedom Caucus leaders, Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). “This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the...