Republicans and Democrats feud over Klobuchar’s actions

By Kaitlan Collins (Brooke Lynch)

On Monday, many Republicans were upset by the actions of the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Klobuchar (Caprice Kashfian), during the committee’s first meeting. The upset began after Klobuchar wrongfully denied Senator Cruz’s (Marcos Sanchez) motion.

During the meeting, Senators were voting on the rules of the committee for the rest of the session. Two Democratic Senators, Senator Schumer (Ryan Creedon) and Senator Tester (Nicholas Pera) were missing during a vote on one of the amendments to the rules. Senator Hirono (Kalista Marandas) was attempting to proxy vote for the two senators to which Senator Cruz made a point of order, explaining that “because we have not agreed on the rules of the committee yet, proxy voting should not be allowed in this vote.”

While Democrats were stalling the vote in order to allow the two senators to make their way back to the committee, Senator Cruz also made a motion to proceed with the roll call vote which was then seconded. Instead of proceeding with the roll call vote, Klobuchar denied the motion. As Senate rules state, a roll call vote must proceed if a motion to conduct a roll call vote has been seconded and debate has ended. By denying the seconded motion, Klobuchar violated the rules of the Senate. Klobuchar also wrongfully ended debate on multiple occasions.

Klobuchar’s multiple violations of the rules of the Senate troubled many Republicans in the meeting. Here’s what they had to say:

Senator Cruz stated that Klobuchar was “simply denying every motion I attempted to make to get the rules to be more fair and bipartisan. So frankly I think it's outrageous the way that the Democrats are running this committee.”

Senator John Cornyn (Rankin Repetti) compared Klobuchar’s leadership to that of an “absolute tyrant” stating he “would like Senator Klobuchar to go learn the rules or step down from her committee.”

There was a general consensus among Republican Judiciary Committee members that they were not happy with the outcome of the meeting. Senator Mitt Romney (Tate Kreutzelman) asserted, “I do not think it went well at all. I think the Republican party was disrespected in this meeting. I thought that the denial for the second was incorrect and I hope the next meeting goes better than this one.” Senator Marsha Blackburn (Chloe Barsness) agreed, stating she thought this meeting was a “trainwreck.” Blackburn also expressed concern for the future of the committee, stating “I’m a little bit worried about what we’re gonna be able to get done in this committee if they are not letting us even speak a simple word.”

Democrats in the Judiciary Committee had a differing opinion on the outcome of the meeting. Senator Hirono disclosed, “I think we got a lot of comments out there, I think we got to work together with the other side, and I feel really great about the rules we set for our committee.” Senator Klobuchar also agreed, stating, “We’re all figuring things out and I’m hopeful that we’re gonna get a lot of things done. The republicans were proposing some amendments that I thought were very trivial but we got over them and hopefully, we’ll be better next time.”

Following the meeting, Senator Cornyn published a press release formally condemning Klobuchar’s actions and calling for her to resign from her position as Chair. Cornyn called Klobuchar’s leadership at the committee meeting “absolutely abysmal” indicating that “Klobuchar is clearly unfit to serve as Committee Chair.”

Multiple members of the Democratic Party responded with a press release condemning Cornyn’s remarks. The Senators admitted that Klobuchar did not follow correct congressional procedure but stated Cornyn’s judgment was “out of line” calling his remarks about Klobuchar defamatory. The Senators also asserted that Cornyn’s press release was an attempt at “undermining Senator Klobuchar's role as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” The press release was signed by Senators Hirono, Sanders (Lauren Goode), King (Tyler Hawes), Klobuchar, Markey (Will Roberts), Sinema (Rhiannon Tamburri), Ossoff (Nicholas De La Torre), Tester, Baldwin (Raquel Estrada), Cortez (Alex Pacheco), Gillibrand (Daisy Waters), Padilla (Rebeca Perez), Schumer, Manchin (Caroline Baker), and Peters (Mitchell Evans).

At this time, Senator Klobuchar has not resigned and is still the Chair of the Judiciary Committee. The Committee will reconvene next Monday, October 17.