Senate Democrats are being urged to step up their opposition to President Donald Trump’s shake-up of the U.S. government as alarm over tech billionaire Elon Musk’s invasion of federal agencies shifts over to anger.
The rage simmering inside Democratic circles has resulted in activists and House members pressuring Democrats in the upper chamber – with some demanding they “shut down the Senate” in response, Politico reported.
But the reaction has, so far, been far more muted. Instead, it has to a large extent been “business as usual in the Senate over the first two weeks of Trump’s second term,” Politico noted as "Republicans have ground through procedural obstacles to confirm nearly a dozen Cabinet nominees, a pace that alarms a broad swath of Democrats.”
That hasn’t offered any satisfaction for many Democrats wondering when party leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will go harder on a strategy for dealing with the new Trump administration’s gradual takeover of nearly every aspect of American life.
“This is not business as usual, and Senate Democrats should not be treating this as business as usual,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told Politico. “We need to see a halt on all Trump nominees.”
She added that her Democratic colleagues need to “blow this place up.”
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“We should not comply in advance,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We should not make it easy for them to do what they need to do if they’re going to do it anyway. Make them do it anyway, but not with our help.”
But Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) cautioned that it would take time to mount an effective resistance with a cohesive message would take time.
“Here’s the dilemma: We’ve got a Republican majority in the Senate, in the House and presidency, so we don’t have the votes,” Welch is quoted as saying. “So, our view is that as the reality of what Trump is doing becomes more apparent, there’s going to be a lot of buyer’s remorse.”
Still, that hasn’t stopped lawmakers in the House from demanding a stronger counter.
“We’re in a different ball game right now,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill) told Politico. “Y’all gotta stop playing checkers.”
